Haze from Indonesia Causing Money Problems for Billionaires and Health Problems for Everyone

Each fall, companies with land in Borneo and Sumatra set fires to their timber properties to create space for the planting of palm oil trees. Even though they cause problems each year, this year is one of the worst since 1997.

Stemming from a combination of slash and burn techniques used in the preparation of planting palm oil trees and the long absence of rain due to El Nino, the fires spread with alarming speed this year. Not only have the fires affected Indonesia, they've caused problems in Singapore and Malaysia, and have gone as far as the Philippines and Thailand.

The repercussions against the fire grow every year, from health problems to business practices. This time it even caused a boycott of an Indonesian company in October.

According to Forbes, Singapore's grocery store chains NTUC FairPrice, Sheng Siong, and Prime Supermarket removed all Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) products from their shelves. Even the Dairy Farm Group, owners of such franchises as Guardian, 7-Eleven, Cold Storage, and Giant, have stopped restocking APP products.

Sinar Mas Group, led by Eka Tjipta Widjaja, head of the fourth richest family in Indonesia, is the parent company of APP. Much of his family's estimated net worth of $5.3 billion is from holdings in the palm oil industry.    

The Singapore Environment Council suspended their Green Label certificate for APP products, because of allegations of the company's involvement in the fires. Many of the large fires have occurred on land that the company and their suppliers own. The accused company claims that it has a zero burning policy for all suppliers and that the fires that had occurred were outside of their boundaries. Adamant that they had nothing to hide, the company invited officials to visit its operations saying that no supplier was shown to have connections to the fires.

Widjaja is not the only billionaire to be under suspicion for his palm oil plantations. Other Indonesian billionaires have denied involvement including Sukanto Tanoto of Asian Agri, and Martua Sitorus, co-founder of the world's largest palm oil company, Wilmar International.

The haze not only has caused problems for the wealthy, but has caused health problems for the people in the areas in and around Indonesia. The Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) reported that there currently have been 19 haze-related deaths and over a half a million people treated for acute lung infection. Infants and pregnant women in the affected areas were also suffering from respiratory problems with many pregnant women hospitalized due to haze-related issues.

As IRIN explains, palm oil is found in nearly half of all supermarket goods including foods like Coca-Cola and products like lipstick. The world's major producer of palm oil is Indonesia, generating 30 million tons per year.

The fires came to an end when it finally began to rain, but the people in the region have started talking about how to prevent similar scale fires from happening next year. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has created a three-year plan to control the haze problem.