Forest Fires: IPB Professor Urges Courts to Determine Who Started the Fire

As forest and land fires continue across parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, an IPB University forestry professor has urged courts to establish who started each fire rather than treating every blaze inside a concession as automatic proof of guilt.

Yanto Santoso said two questions must be kept separate: where the fire began and whether the concession holder fulfilled its duties to prevent, detect, control and extinguish fires. Determining responsibility, he said, requires evidence about the fire’s origin, the condition of the area, the manager’s actions and the connection between management activities and the losses caused.

“Strict liability must not be equated with strict guilt. It does not mean that once a fire occurs inside a concession, the concession holder is automatically considered the party that started it,” Yanto said in a statement in Jakarta.

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Strict liability must not be equated with strict guilt. It does not mean that once a fire occurs inside a concession, the concession holder is automatically considered the party that started it.

He said court practice showed that strict liability in forest-fire cases depended heavily on the quality of the evidence. The principle reduces the need to prove fault, such as intent or negligence, but it does not make concession holders automatically responsible for every fire that enters or occurs within their areas.

Yanto also called for a moratorium on land clearing through burning in high-risk areas during drought conditions and the influence of El Niño. He said such a measure would not erase local wisdom, but would adapt the practice to environmental conditions and the level of fire danger.

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This does not mean erasing local wisdom, but adapting such practices to environmental conditions and the level of fire danger.