SD Guthrie rejects allegations over Indonesian land fires
The plantation group said checks found no active fires on its Indonesian estates and no evidence linking its subsidiaries or employees to starting fires.
SD Guthrie Bhd (KL:SDG) denied on Oct 20 that its subsidiaries or employees were responsible for forest and land fires in Indonesia, saying its checks on the ground found no active fires within its estates there.
The company said the allegations lacked credible evidence and that it had found nothing linking its subsidiaries or employees to starting the fires. It did not identify the report that prompted its response.
Jakarta-based environmental advocacy organisation WALHI had identified Sime Darby, the former name of SD Guthrie, among companies suspected of causing the fires. Smoke from wildfires in Indonesia has reached Singapore and several Malaysian cities.
SD Guthrie said some businesses described in public reports as its affiliates were neither owned nor managed or controlled by the group. It also cited a policy prohibiting burning throughout its operations since 1985.
The group said its operations respond immediately to fires within or near their boundaries, whatever the cause. Its Indonesian subsidiary, Minamas Plantation, has more than 1,000 personnel trained in firefighting, supported by drones and infrared monitoring covering plantation concessions and 322,000 hectares of neighbouring community land. Maintaining and deploying these resources costs about RM800,000 monthly, it said.
From January to September, the company's firefighters put out over 2,400 fires, including 2,376 incidents on community land. SD Guthrie said its response outside its concessions did not demonstrate responsibility for those fires.
