REDD-Monitor’s round-up of the week’s news on forests, climate change, and REDD. For regular updates, follow @reddmonitor on Twitter.
REDD+ at COP22
UN-REDD, October 2016
Nov 07, 2016 18:30-20:00, EU Pavilion, Blue Zone REDD+ Forest Reference (Emission) Levels and REDD+ results reporting progress and challenges in developing countries
Nov 08, 2016 18:30-20:00, EU Pavilion (Blue Zone) Tackling deforestation through improved land-use governance: learning from FLEGT and REDD+ experience…
24 October 2016
Climate Change May Trigger Next Financial Crisis, Fisher Says
By Emily Cadman, Bloomberg, 24 October 2016
Climate change could spark the world’s next financial crisis, according to Paul Fisher, who retired this year as deputy head of the Bank of England body which supervises the country’s banks.
“It is potentially a systemic risk,” Fisher said Monday in an interview in Sydney. A sudden repricing of assets as a result of climate change “could be the trigger for the next financial crisis,” he added.
Fisher, a 26-year-veteran of the U.K. central bank, pointed to the renewed fall in sterling earlier this month, after the government set out a timetable for leaving the European Union, as an example of the way that prices can shift suddenly. “That is exactly the sort of event you might get with climate change,” said Fisher, formerly deputy head of the U.K.’s Prudential Regulation Authority.
[Canada] Quebec’s carbon market not changing citizens’ habits: experts
By Fannie Olivier, The Globe and Mail, 24 October 2016
As politicians across the country worry about the consequences of a national carbon tax on family incomes, many experts say the much-touted carbon market in Quebec has so far had little effect on changing citizens’ habits.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced all provinces will need to set a baseline price for carbon by 2018, either with a tax or through a carbon-market system similar to the one Quebec has adopted.
Ontario is set to join Quebec’s carbon market – which is tied to California’s – but so far the program has not had the desired outcome, prominent experts say.
[Indonesia] Fires destroy land, conservation areas as people pray for rain
By Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post, 24 October 2016
Massive land and forest fires in Limapuluh Kota regency, West Sumatra, over the past 20 days have destroyed 300 hectares of area, including 70 hectares of conservation forest.
Of the devastated conservation forest, 40 hectares were found in the Lembah Harau protected area and 30 hectares in the Air Putih Taram conservation area.
“The fire degraded the animal habitat and reduced biodiversity in the conservation areas,” said Zaidi, head of the Region I section with the West Sumatra Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA).
He said the fire could also lead to a drought that could threaten the people’s water supply.
[Indonesia] Jokowi’s agrarian reform agenda stalls
By Moses Ompusunggu, The Jakarta Post, 24 October 2016
Two years have gone by since President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo vowed to improve the lives of farmers through agrarian reform.
The agrarian reform agenda was included in Jokowi’s multifaceted Nawacita development program and consists of seven initiatives, including agrarian conflict settlement, land distribution to farmers and nationwide land legalization.
But none of the three have shown encouraging progress, analysts have said, highlighting the government’s lack of will to make its commitments a reality during the last two years, when the country has seen two different agrarian ministers as a result of Cabinet shake-ups.
[UK] Brexit offers the chance to send the boiler-room salesmen and their schemes packing
By Richard Evans, The Telegraph, 24 October 2016
Many in the City are desperate to retain an aspect of EU membership that enables them to sell their services in any member state without the hassle and expense of becoming regulated in each individual country.
Called “passporting”, it allows British firms to set up operations quickly elsewhere in the EU and also enables some foreign banks to offer savings accounts here, often with very attractive rates, without establishing a separate bank in the UK.
No one wants to see our financial services industry, which for all its faults is vital to the economy, handicapped when it comes to exporting its services. But there are some ways in which the loss of passporting in its present form would be of great benefit to savers.
25 October 2016
Company climate change plans too weak to meet Paris goals – survey
By Alister Doyle, Reuters, 25 October 2016
Plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by big companies represent only a quarter of the amounts needed to limit global warming under targets agreed last year by almost 200 nations, a study showed on Tuesday.
“More companies are acting, but still have a long way to go,” said Paul Simpson, chief executive of London-based CDP, an independent group which tracks companies’ performances and was formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project.
About 85 percent of 1,089 major companies which responded to a CDP survey said they have set goals for lowering greenhouse gas emissions as part of a drive to slow climate change and avert downpours, heatwaves and rising sea levels.
Should you buy carbon offsets?
By Alison Potter, Choice, 25 October 2016
In 2015, airlines spewed 781 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, representing about 2% of man-made CO2 emissions. If global aviation was a country, its CO2 emissions would be ranked 7th in the world, between Germany and South Korea.
And as flying becomes cheaper and more popular, the problem is heading skyward. Global passenger air traffic grew by 5.2% from June 2015 to June 2016 and emissions are growing at around 2-3% a year.
While many industries are innovating to cut emissions, the airline industry doesn’t yet have commercially available low-carbon fuel options.
UN faces deadlock over shipping climate deal plans
By Ed King, Climate Home, 25 October 2016
Countries remain split on a framework for tackling the climate impact from shipping after two days of UN-backed talks in London.
Officials from nearly 40 governments made statements through Tuesday afternoon calling for the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to take a lead in slashing the sector’s carbon pollution, but offered little sense of consensus.
One envoy from a small island state invoked the spirit of former Marshall Islands foreign minister Tony De Brum, who told the IMO in 2015 that “time was not on its side” in its race to cut emissions.
Wednesday In Washington: Explore Latest Developments In Forest-Carbon Finance
By Steve Zwick, Ecosystem Marketplace, 25 October 2016
The Paris Climate Agreement creates a framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, in part by funneling money into programs that promote better management of forests, farms and fields – our impact on which generates nearly 25% of global greenhouse-gas emissions.
It formalizes mechanisms that have been evolving for decades both inside and outside the United Nations, and two reports published this year offer insight into how those mechanisms have evolved in the past and how they may evolve in the future. On Wednesday, we’ll offer a deep dive into both reports, and an opportunity to speak with report contributors Kelley Hamrick and Peter Graham.
[Australia] Two Gold Coast men arrested over telemarketing investment fraud
By Shanee Dobeson, myGC.com, 25 October 2016
Two men have been arrested on the Gold Coast for fraud and money laundering following an ongoing, 11-month investigation into dodgy boiler-room activity.
Last Thursday and this morning, two Gold Coast men aged 23 and 37 were arrested by detectives.
It is alleged both men were the principals behind two companies ‘Prestige Capital Australia Pty Ltd’ and ‘Keystone Finance Pty Ltd’ that had operated on the Gold Coast during 2014 and 2015.
It is alleged between August 2014 and December 2015 the two companies operated telemarketing call centres out of rented Surfers Paradise offices. Private individuals across Australia were contacted and induced into collectively transferring over $3 million.
[Australia] Former Fink bikie Jacob Staines arrested for alleged Gold Coast boiler room scams
By Jessica Elder, Gold Coast Bulletin, 25 October 2016
A former Finks treasurer has been arrested for allegedly defrauding $3 million from victims through Surfers Paradise boiler room scams.
Taskforce Maxima detectives took Jacob Staines, 23, into custody on the Gold Coast this morning, while an alleged 37-year-old accomplice was arrested last week.
Staines is expected to be charged with fraud and money laundering offences following an 11 month investigation by police and Crime and Corruption Commission.
EU demonstrates commitment to developing countries by stepping up climate finance to €17.6 bln
European Commission, 25 October 2016
The Commission welcomes the European Union’s strong commitment to scale-up financing for climate action in developing countries, which showed a significant increase in 2015.
The EU, EIB and Member States last year provided EUR 17.6 billion to help developing countries tackle climate change. The figure was confirmed at a meeting of the EU Economic and Financial Committee.
This demonstrates the EU’s determination to contribute its fair share of the goal set by developed countries to provide USD100 billion in annual finance to developing countries from various sources by 2020. The recent Climate Finance Roadmap prepared by the donor community indicates that they are on track to meet the ambitious goal. A new collective goal will be set by 2025.
[Indonesia] Ex-Riau Police chief denies terminating 15 cases of forest fires
By Marguerite Afra Sapiie, The Jakarta Post, 25 October 2016
Former Riau Police chief Insp. Gen. Dolly Bambang Hermawan on Tuesday denied issuing terminations of investigation (SP3s) to 15 companies that were accused of being responsible for forest fires in the province.
Members of the House of Representatives’ committee investigating the forest fires on Tuesday sought clarification from Dolly about a statement made by Dolly’s successor, Brig. Gen Supriyanto, who said that the SP3s were issued when Dolly was still in charge.
Dolly stressed that out of 18 cases related to bush and forest fires during his term from August 2014 to March 2016, only three were SP3s.
[Uganda] A better way to sell Eucalypts
By Concepta Mukasa and Alica Tibazalika, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 25 October 2016
Eucalyptus timber and poles are in high demand in Uganda, yet Faiby Namukwaya, a 48-year-old mother of ten, can’t seem to find a good price for her products.
Prospective buyers tell her: “Your trees are overgrown, they will not sell easily,”or “You planted them too far from the roadside, so we will have to deduct the price to factor in the costs incurred for transporting them to the roadside,” she says.
Stuck for ideas on how to sell her three-year-old Eucalypts, Namukwaya brought her problem to one of the monthly Adaptive Collaborative Management (ACM) monitoring meetings held in her village, Nkinga. There she received advice from the District Forest Officer, from an external timber market specialist, and from more than 100 other forest users who are members of the Nkinga ACM group.
26 October 2016
Magical Thinking Won’t Stop Climate Change
By Mark Buchanan, Bloomberg, 26 October 2016
World leaders have started to generate some real optimism with their efforts to address global climate change. What’s troubling, though, is how far we remain from getting carbon emissions under control — and how much wishful thinking is still required to believe we can do so.
The Paris agreement on climate change has garnered the national signatories needed to go into force on Nov. 4. Some economists see it as a promising framework for cooperation among many different countries, especially if those not pulling their weight suffer penalties such as trade sanctions. There’s even talk of aiming for the more ambitious goal of keeping global temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius or less of their pre-industrial level, as opposed to the currently agreed 2 degrees. Meanwhile, another major international deal has been reached to phase out greenhouse gases used in refrigeration systems, and solar energy technology continues its rapid advance.
Brazil carbon emissions rise despite deep recession -researchers
By Marcelo Teixeira, Reuters, 26 October 2016
Increased deforestation led to a 3.5 percent jump in Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2015 despite an economic recession that reduced levels of the gases produced by the energy, transportation and industrial sectors, researchers said.
An annual report released on Wednesday by Brazil’s Climate Observatory said emissions last year reached 1.92 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), with deforestation contributing 884 million tonnes.
Brazil is going through its worst recession since the Great Depression. The economy shrank by 3.5 percent last year and is expected to contract 3 percent this year.
Brazil forest clearance is rising in a recession – that’s worrying
By Natalie Unterstell, Climate Home, 26 October 2016
For years, deforestation in Brazil was coupled with economic cycles. When the economy grew, the rates would increase.
This pattern was disrupted from 2005 onwards, when rates started to fall despite increased economic growth due to anti-deforestation policies put in place.
But the latest data shows an alarming trend. After a decade of progress on curbing forest loss, the deforestation rate is rising – in the teeth of economic recession.
Between August 2014 and July 2015, 6,207 square kilometres of forest was cut down, nearly a quarter more than the previous year. It is the highest level in four years, the National Institute for Space Research said.
[UK] FCA chief: ‘very sorry history’ of regulation calls for radical change
By Jack Gilbert, New Model Adviser, 26 October 2016
The chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Andrew Bailey has described recent events in financial regulation as a ‘very sorry history’ as he pledged to make the regulator more transparent.
In the FCA’s mission statement document released today, Bailey (pictured) said that there has two financial crises in the last 10 years; the banking crisis and another involving the mis-conduct of firms with financial crime and scandals such as payment protection insurance.
[USA] California Champions Cross-Border Climate Innovations
By Josh Lappen, The American Prospect, 26 October 2016
Long an environmental pioneer, California is modeling a new, cross-border approach to state climate regulations that could have sweeping impacts on greenhouse gas emissions.
n late August, a robust environmental coalition advocating sweeping climate change legislation in California scored an 11th-hour victory. With only a week left in the legislative session, the Assembly defied expectations by approving a bill that would build on California’s existing short-term goals to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030.
The response from the bill’s backers has bordered on the ecstatic, and advocacy groups, media outlets, and political pundits have cast the passage of the law, known as SB32, as a triumphant moment in California’s unstoppable progress as a go-it-alone global climate leader. However, the law’s actual climate impacts will be subtler. While positive, SB32’s passage comes amid deep uncertainty over whether California can realize its domestic climate ambitions. Having rejected a stronger version of SB32 in 2015, the legislature only narrowly passed the law this year by leaving many of the contentious details of implementation unaddressed.
[USA] Why Bay Area’s poorest, most polluted cities stand to lose grants
By Melody Gutierrez, San Francisco Chronicle, 26 October 2016
Some of the Bay Area’s poorest neighborhoods stand to lose out on state grants from a pot of money that has brought more than $100 million to the region’s disadvantaged, polluted communities in recent years.
The money comes from California’s cap-and-trade program, which limits the greenhouse gases businesses can emit and requires heavy polluters to buy carbon credits at state auctions to offset excess emissions. The program requires the state to distribute a quarter of the auction revenue to pollution-heavy low-income cities, which use the grants to improve public health and the environment, in part by funding affordable housing near public transit, planting trees and encouraging car-sharing programs.
27 October 2016
Two-thirds of the world’s vertebrate wildlife could be gone by 2020, report warns
By Chelsea Harvey, The Star, 27 October 2016
A new report predicts devastating declines in wildlife populations over the next five years, unless quick action is taken. By the end of the decade, we’re likely to have lost 67 per cent of all vertebrate wildlife compared to 1970, it says.
According to this year’s Living Planet Report, released by the World Wildlife Fund every two years, global vertebrate populations have plunged by 58 per cent overall since 1970. And organisms living in freshwater systems, such as rivers and lakes, have fared even worse, declining by 81 per cent in the last four decades.
The carbon bubble: why investors can no longer ignore climate risks
By Carol J Clouse, The Guardian, 27 October 2016
When Sandy Emerson sat down in her portfolio manager’s office two years ago and announced she wanted to divest from fossil fuels, the latter furrowed her brow and said: “Why would you want to do that?” Emerson, a 68-year-old Berkeley, California resident, explained her unease about owning shares in companies that contribute to climate change and began selling her stock.
As a result, Emerson has been paying closer attention to the ups and downs in the oil industry and the growing public discussions about the future of fossil fuel use. “I’ve become aware of the financial implications it has for me,” she says.
Emerson is among a growing number of investors who see global warming not only as a looming environmental problem but also an investment risk. Some fund managers are ringing alarm bells as well. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with almost $5tn in assets, issued a report last month recommending investors include climate risks in their decisions.
10 years on from the Stern report: a low-carbon future is the ‘only one available’
By Damian Carrington, The Guardian, 27 October 2016
Clean, green development is the sole route to future global economic growth, according to British economist Lord Nicholas Stern, with a continuation of polluting, high-carbon growth only leading to self-destruction.
There is a strong argument that China is now leading the world in action on climate change, Stern said, making the country both a competitor and inspiration for other nations.
Stern, speaking ahead of two lectures to mark the 10th anniversary of the highly influential Stern report, said the cost of not acting to halt global warming had risen while the costs of doing so had fallen.
BlackRock calls for higher carbon price to tackle climate change
By Attracta Mooney, Financial Times, 27 October 2016
BlackRock has called on governments globally to make businesses pay a higher price for the pollution they generate, in a move aimed at forcing companies to reduce their carbon emissions.
The world’s largest fund house, which manages $4.9tn for investors, said it is struggling to understand the climate change risks it faces when making investment decisions because the price companies have to pay for emitting carbon is inconsistent.
Joanna Cound, head of government affairs and public policy in Europe for BlackRock, said: “Governments have a fundamental role to play [in] giving clarity and predictability around climate-related policies.
AkzoNobel issues shipping industry’s record number of carbon credits
edie.net, 27 October 2016
Italian Shipping company Grimaldi Group has received the largest ever issuance from AkzoNobel’s carbon credits scheme, which has seen 14 vessels presented with 109,617 carbon credits.
Accumulated and verified in conjunction with the Gold Standard Foundation, the 14 vessels from Grimaldi Group have been enrolled in the programme after upgrading to the biocide-free Intersleek hull coating from AkzoNobel.
The coating can improve vessel efficiency and reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Under the scheme, carbon credits are awarded for every tonne of verified CO2 that is saved and are currently valued in excess of $500,000 based on the current market.
Fears for isolated Bolivian tribe met by Chinese oil firm in Amazon
By David Hill, The Guardian, 27 October 2016
Teams from a Chinese oil and gas company exploring in the remote Bolivian Amazon have reportedly had near encounters with a group of indigenous people living in what the United Nations calls “isolation”, raising major concern for the group’s welfare.
The company doing the exploring, BGP Bolivia, is ultimately a subsidiary of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), one of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world. The near encounters are reported to have taken place in the north-west of the country, close to the border with Peru and just to the east of the world-famous Madidi National Park.
One near encounter has been confirmed in a BGP report dated 17 September. It includes hand-written statements by three eyewitnesses – all Bolivian nationals – as well as photographs of evidence provided by two BGP teams believed to confirm the isolated group’s existence.
Brazil: “Wave after wave” of loggers invade uncontacted tribe’s rainforest
Survival International, 27 October 2016
Waves of loggers are invading the territory of one of the most vulnerable peoples on the planet. The Indians, known as the Last of the Kawahiva, are the survivors of a larger tribe who have been killed or died of disease.
One group of loggers was recently caught by agents from FUNAI, Brazil’s Indigenous Affairs department. However, as the loggers have local political support, and FUNAI agents do not have the power to arrest suspects, the men were released. Further waves of loggers have since entered the territory.
The crisis has raised concerns among campaigners that the tribe and their rainforest home could be destroyed entirely.
Efforts to stop deforestation in DRC may be misplaced, study finds
By Morgan Erickson-Davis, mongabay.com, 27 October 2016
Deforestation rates have been rising in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent years, threatening the country’s forest-dependent wildlife and releasing millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Now, a new study may have pinpointed a big reason behind this trend: farmers clearing land to earn money. Its authors say their results upend conventional wisdom and indicate conservation programs like REDD+ tasked with slowing down tropical deforestation may not be giving enough attention to this specific driver.
The study was conducted in a deforestation hotspot in northeastern DRC by researchers from universities in the DRC and Belgium. Published recently in the journal Land Use Policy, it examined an assumption of the DRC government that subsistence farming is driving deforestation in the Central African country. But fieldwork and interviews with 270 Congolese households in 27 villages suggested this is not the case.
[Indonesia] Growing new energy
By Catriona Croft-Cusworth, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 27 October 2016
Siti Maimunah deftly steps out of a shallow canoe, stamps though the undergrowth and enters a cleared field, surveying the land. The two-hectare plot of dry and degraded peatland is not much to look at for now, but Siti is already looking ahead to the potential it could hold for renewable energy, land restoration and livelihoods in Central Kalimantan.
A forestry lecturer at Palangka Raya’s Muhammadiyah University, Siti has made regular visits to the remote plot for more than five months. Accompanied by her students and members of the local community in Buntoi village, she has been monitoring the progress of five types of bioenergy plants being tested on the trial plot.
28 October 2016
Forests and finance trends — role of forests in meeting the Paris climate targets
By Sophie Edwards, devex.com, 28 October 2016
While the Paris agreement solidified the role forests play in the fight against climate change, a recent report indicates that forest carbon trading is not working in developing countries and that voluntary carbon markets remained stagnant amid flagging demand in 2015.
The findings comes from the latest State of Forest Carbon Finance report, released on Wednesday, which looked at the amount of money flowing into forest projects and government programs designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, in 2015.
Forest carbon finance refers to the funding of initiatives designed to reduce deforestation, plant new trees and promote carbon-conscious land management — all of which results in a reduction of CO2 emissions. Each ton of CO2 not emitted translates into one carbon credit, which can then be traded on either the voluntary or compliance carbon markets, enabling governments and companies to meet their carbon emission allowances or voluntary targets.
Climate change help should be in aid, not loan, Bangladesh parliamentary panel head says
bdnews24.com, 28 October 2016
As an ‘innocent victim’ of climate change, Bangladesh should receive aid, not loan, to fight the effects of climate change, the head of the parliamentary panel on environment and forest ministry has said.
Hasan Mahmud, also former environment minister, spoke twice on the matter on Thursday – once at a seminar and later after the panel’s meeting.
He emphasised ‘preventing commercialisation’ of the Green Climate Fund, which was initiated with a promise by the developed countries to raise $100 billion annually by 2020 in order to help the countries vulnerable to climate change fight the effects.
Brazil Greenhouse Gas Emission Spike Blamed on Deforestation
By Brittany Patterson, ClimateWire, 28 October 2016
Greenhouse gas emissions jumped 3.5 percent last year due to a rise in forest clearing, according to a report released yesterday from Observatório do Clima, a consortium of 40 environmental groups in Brazil.
The country, in the midst of the deepest economic recession in more than a century, saw its gross domestic product fall 3.8 percent last year. Concurrently, almost 2,400 square miles of forests was lost, the first major jump in deforestation in four years.
The jump in emissions—the country is now at the same emissions level that it had in 2010—has called into question whether the South American country can meet its international climate commitments. The country pledged to cut emissions 37 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 and 43 percent by 2030.
Could REDD help save an embattled forest in Cambodia?
By Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com, 28 October 2016
Over the past three decades, few countries lost forest cover faster than Cambodia: over a quarter of the country’s forests were cleared since 1990. Much of that destruction was driven by logging and conversion for agriculture and plantations.
In the late 2000s, Cambodia’s rapid rate of forest loss seemed to make it an ideal candidate for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), a performance-based approach to conservation that gained traction after 2007 climate talks in Bali, Indonesia. Under REDD, Cambodia would get paid for its success in curbing deforestation of its carbon-dense tropical forests.
[New Zealand] Living beyond our carbon budget
By Brian Fallow, New Zealand Herald, 28 October 2016
Next Friday, the Paris Agreement on climate change will enter into force, having achieved the critical mass of ratification much sooner than expected.
For the 2020s, New Zealand will be bound by a carbon budget of 611 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The trouble is, on our present course and speed, projected emissions will be some 235 million tonnes, or 38 per cent, more than that.
Before considering how that overshoot is to be dealt with, it is worth noting how the Government plans to “spend” that carbon budget.
[USA] Want to Win on Climate? Put Justice at the Center
By Laurie Mazur, Pacific Standard, 28 October 2016
In a season of grim climate news, California (once again) offers a ray of sunshine. In its 2016 legislative session, the state passed no fewer than six groundbreaking climate bills: setting historic targets for greenhouse gas reductions, helping disadvantaged communities build climate resilience, and more.
These bills can serve as models for progressive climate legislation at the state and federal levels. But the real story here — and the lesson for climate activists everywhere — is in how the bills came to pass.
As recently as last year, the prospects for new California climate laws seemed dim. Big Oil spent a record $22 million lobbying the California state legislature in 2015, and it paid off. A bill to set tough emissions reduction targets — SB-32, introduced by Senator Fran Pavley (Democrat-Agoura Hills) — was shot down in the Assembly by “moderate” Democrats with ties to fossil-fuel interests. Early in 2016, Governor Jerry Brown met with oil companies in closed-door talks, trying to craft a compromise bill that industry would accept.
29 October 2016
30 October 2016
[Indonesia] House to crosscheck testimonies on halted forest fire investigations
By Marguerite Afra Sapiie, The Jakarta Post, 30 October 2016
A House of Representatives committee investigating forest fires will crosscheck differing testimonies made by two former Riau Police chiefs — Insp. Gen. Dolly Bambang Hermawan and Brig. Gen. Supriyanto — about who issued letters to terminate investigations (SP3s) into 15 alleged forest burners.
“We will summon [the police officials] on Thursday along with the investigation team, so that we know who holds the real responsibility for the issuance of SP3s for 15 companies,” committee member Syarifudin Sudding told journalists on Tuesday.
The plan arose following a Tuesday hearing, in which Dolly, who held office from August 2014 to March 2016, rejected a statement made by Supriyanto that Dolly was responsible for issuing the SP3s to stop investigating 15 companies accused of being responsible for forest fires.