KUALA LUMPUR — The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) will be investigating five member companies for their involvement in the Indonesia forest fires.

They are: PT Jatim Jaya Perkasa, Tabung Haji Plantations, Sinar Mas, Kuala Lumpur Kepong and Sime Darby.

The international organisation, which monitors and promotes sustainable farming of palm oil, said it will direct the companies to submit digital maps of their plantations in Sumatra and Kalimantan within the next 48 hours.

The maps will then be analysed against the published mapping of the forest fires by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

If the location of forrest fires matches with the location of the plantations, the next step would be to find out the reasons for the forest fires.

“If the investigations confirm negligent conduct – the RSPO will not hesitate to take action,” said its Secretary General Darrel Webber in a statement.

“By virtue of being a RSPO member it is a must that these companies have a policy across all their operations that strictly prohibit open burning and have standard operating procedures to manage fire risks as per the requirement of the RSPO’s Principles & Criteria,” he said.

“However, the RSPO recommends avoiding speculation at this stage allowing investigations to determine whether these RSPO member companies are involved,” he added.

Sime Darby President and Group Chief Executive Tan Sri Dato’ Mohd Bakke Salleh said: “Sime Darby Berhad fully supports the initiative by RSPO. I would like to reiterate Sime Darby’s commitment and full compliance of the zero burning policy, which is strictly embedded in all our oil palm plantation operations.”

Kuala Lumpur Kepung Head of Sustainability, Sin Chuan Eng said: “We will be making arrangements to submit the digital maps of our plantations to RSPO and shall give the RSPO fullest cooperation during the process of the proposed investigations.”