Riau, 22 August 2017 – Four villages in Riau Province and one village in Jambi Province have been rewarded by Asian Agri for their role in reducing the number of national forest fires.
The rewards were presented by Montty Girianna, Deputy for Coordination in Energy, Natural Resources, and Environmental Management, Indonesia Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, to representatives from the villages which successfully prevented fire on their land in the past year.
The five villages – Lubuk Ogong, Lalang Kabung, Delik, and Segati Village in Riau Province, and Lubuk Bernai Village in Jambi province – were part of the Fire Free Village Program. Each received a reward in the form of incentives worth IDR 100,000,000 that can be used for procurement and improvement of fire prevention facilities.
Asian Agri started the Fire Free Village Program in 2016, partnering with seven villages in Riau and two villages in Jambi Province. In 2016, about 7.98 out of 306,664 hectares was burnt, a significant reduction from 13.75 hectares the year before.
“The key success of the reduction of fire is village-level initiatives in fire prevention. As the nearest parties to the potential fire sites, prevention and early anticipation are easier and faster when done by villages, to stop the widespread fires,” said Welly Pardede, Asian Agri’s Head of Sustainability Operation & CSR.
Montty stated that the synergy between society, companies and villages has always been supported by the government. The partnership scheme is needed to work hand in hand to prevent the negative impact of land fires.
“Land fire is a national disaster and to prevent it requires the participation of all elements of the nation. In this case, the synergy between government, companies, and society is needed to ensure the prevention of forest and land fires can be done optimally,” said Montty.
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About Asian Agri:
Asian Agri is one of the leading private companies in Indonesia producing crude palm oil (CPO) since 1979 and employs around 25,000 people today. Since 1987, Asian Agri has been a pioneer of the Indonesian government’s Trans-National Government Migration (PIR-Trans) program. Today, the company manages 100,000 Ha of land and partners 30,000 smallholder families in Riau and Jambi who operate 60,000 Ha of palm oil plantation.
Asian Agri’s success in becoming one of the leading CPO companies has been acknowledged internationally with the ISO 14001 certification for all of its operations. Its Learning Institute in Pelalawan, Riau, as well as its nursery research center in Kampar, Riau are ISO 9001 certified. In addition, Asian Agri’s R&D Center in Tebing Tinggi has also obtained certification by the International Plant-Analytical Exchange at the WEPAL lab at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, for its high standards.
More than 86% of both owned plantations in North Sumatra, Riau & Jambi provinces & scheme smallholder plantations in Riau & Jambi provinces have been RSPO certified.
All plantations have also been ISCC-certified (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification), including plantation owned by smallholders. Palm oil mills and plantation in Buatan, Ukui, Soga, Tungkul Ulu, and Muara Bulian have been ISPO (Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil) certified.
For further information, please contact:
| Maria Sidabutar |
| Head of Corporate Communications |
| E-mail: Maria_Sidabutar@www.asianagri.com |
| DID: +6221 230 1119 |
