Jakarta – A smear campaign against the national palm-oil industry is underway, the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI) has claimed, as pictures went viral on social media showing youn

Lindsay Murdoch, Bangkok – A conservation scientist has described an acrid haze choking parts of South-east Asia as one of the worst ever man-made environmental disasters, saying that it is affecti

KoPi – The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), a social organisation concerned with the environment, has released a list of big companies causing the forest and land fires in Indonesia.

Jakarta – Ten people have died in Sumatra and Kalimantan due to smog from forest and land fires, which include those killed during fire extinguishing operations and victims of acute respiratory inf

Jakarta – The Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) calls on Muslims to conduct a prayer for rain to help manage the haze crisis in the country, a top official of the organization said on Wednesday.

Ayomi Amindoni, Jakarta – The government is set to cancel its plan to relax certification requirements for downstream timber products.

Jakarta – Indonesian forest fires that have caused choking smoke to drift across Southeast Asia are spreading to new areas and are unlikely to be put out until next year, experts said on Monday.

Parliza Hendrawan, Palembang – The bad old practices of the New Order dictatorship of former President Suharto are still being applied in some government agencies in Indonesia.

Tama Salim, Jakarta – The number of people falling ill from deteriorating air quality has jumped to almost 500,000 as fires that have ravaged forest and peat lands in Sumatra and Kalimantan over th

Nani Afrida and Haeril Halim, Jakarta – National Police chief Gen.

Jakarta – A new palm oil producer grouping being set up by Indonesia and Malaysia would replace "no deforestation" pledges made by major palm companies in favor of a joint set of standards proposed

Ayomi Amindoni, Jakarta – The government's plan to relax certification requirements for downstream timber products has raised concern from environmental groups.

Jakarta – The government has revoked the forest concession license of one company and suspended the licenses of three others for their alleged involvement in starting the land and forest fires curr

Jon Afrizal and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Jambi/Padang – Fires that razed extensive forest areas and peat lands in Sumatra and Kalimantan over the past few weeks have caused local residents to struggle

Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – Indonesia has asked Australia to help it fight forest fires raging through Kalimantan and Sumatra that have created dangerously high levels of air pollution in the region

Lindsay Murdoch, Bangkok – Malaysia has ordered all schools to close for two days as choking haze blanketing a large swathe of south-east Asia is on track to become the worst on record.

Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – An Australian company is being investigated by Indonesian police over a fire on a palm oil plantation in Borneo as the republic tries to crack down on companies responsib

Ward Berenschot – On 9 December voters in Central Kalimantan were supposed to elect a new governor. In early November I travelled to the province to follow the campaign.

Jakarta – World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia, an international NGO concerned with conservation, research and environmental conservation, called on the government to be more serious about pr

Jakarta – Up to 218 cases related to forest and land fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan are currently being investigated by police.

Singapore has launched legal action that could lead to large fines against Indonesian companies blamed for farm and plantation fires spewing unhealthy levels of air pollution over the city state.

Rizal Harahap and Ina Parlina, Pekanbaru/Jakarta – Smoke produced by land and forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan has continued to intensify over the past few days, severely threatening the heal

Jambi – President Joko Widodo has again been forced to cancel a trip to monitor efforts to quell haze-causing forest fires, as visibility was still too low on Friday to safely fly the presidential

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The government has announced the revocation of permits for four firms whose concessions in Sumatra and Kalimantan have burned up recently, adding to the haze fire disa

Jakarta – Indonesian police are expediting a criminal investigation into one of 10 companies charged so far with starting forest fires that have generated choking haze across vast swaths of Sumatra

Indonesian Green Institute chairman Chalid Muhammad has said that large parts of Indonesia's forests have been converted into plantation businesses, mostly for oil palm, including many owned by for

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja for the Straits Times – Indonesian police arrested seven corporate executives on Wednesday in connection with illegal forest fires across Sumatra and Kalimantan, as part of a

Jakarta – A Malaysian company is among more than 20 firms under investigation by Indonesian authorities in connection with forest fires that have caused a haze to engulf large parts of Southeast As

Jakarta – At least 10 companies believed to be behind several land fire incidents across Sumatra and Kalimantan have been charged by the National Police with violating the Law on the Environment.

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by palm oil company PT Kallista Alam and ordered the company to pay fines totalling Rp 366 billion (US$25.6 million) for illeg

Rizal Harahap and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Pekanbaru/Padang – A day after being appointed the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Willem Rampangilei pledged on Wednesday to clear up

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja – Ten plantation companies operating in Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi and Kalimantan provinces may see their licences revoked, and may be fined as investigators probe whether the

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb and Rizal Harahap, Padang/Pekanbaru – Thick haze produced by land and forest fires has continued to blanket several parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, forcing local authorities t

Jakarta – Most regions of Sumatra are currently blanketed by smoke from land and forest fires and the pollution will potentially reach neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.

Rizal Harahap and Apriadi Gunawan, Pekanbaru/Medan – Thick haze caused by ongoing land and forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan has forced local authorities on the two islands to temporarily shut

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – In stark contrast to Indonesia's commitment to reduce rampant deforestation, the government has surprisingly become a vocal opponent of a "zero deforestation" pledge s

Santon Tekege – Nabire based human rights activist Gunawan Inggeruhi has stated that an oil palm company managed by PT New Nabire and PT SAD, has caused uneasiness amongst citizens of Wami and Sima

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) started work on Friday to deal with the rampant illegal issuance of forest use permits by enlisting the help of three relevant ministries.

Jon Afrizal and Rizal Harahap, Jambi/Pekanbaru – It is believed that oil palm plantations and industrial forest companies have played roles in the spreading of fires currently burning hundreds of h

Jon Afrizal, Jambi – Land and forest fires have continued to spread in Sumatra and Kalimantan over the past several days in the midst of the dry season, prompting local authorities to go all-out to

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Recent data from the government has shown that rampant environmental crime in Indonesia is posing an extraordinary threat to the country's ecological sustainability.

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – After being heavily criticized for failing to improve on the moratorium on new concession permits for primary forests and peat lands, the government is set to remedy t

Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – One of the world's largest manufacturers of pulp and paper in Indonesia has announced it will immediately stop logging in all natural forests.

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Indragiri Hilir/Jakarta – Thousands of hectares of peatland in Indragiri Hilir regency, Riau, are under threat by the advance of palm oil company PT Setia Agrindo Lestari (PT

Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru – The executive director of the Riau chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Riko Kurniawan, has called for the audit and evaluation of concessions gra

Kennial Caroline Laia, Jakarta – Environmental activists have called on President Joko Widodo to extend and strengthen a forest-clearing moratorium that runs out this month.

Philip Jacobson – There's a saying in the Indonesian palm oil industry: Sumatra is yesterday, Kalimantan is today, and Papua is tomorrow. Tomorrow might well have arrived.

Jakarta – Millions of more hectares of forest across the country are likely to be destroyed in the near future despite a decline in the deforestation rate over the past decade, according to the Wor

Jon Afrizal, Jambi – A number of NGOs in Jambi have called for the logging moratorium that has applied since 2010 and which is due to end on May 15 to be extended for the sake of forest conservatio

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The Environment and Forestry Ministry is in hot water after refusing to release what it deems to be confidential documents but which several civil society organization