Astra Agro has issued the Zero Burn Policy since January 2007, emphasizing the Company’s commitment to forest and land fires (Karhutla) prevention and mitigation. This commitment was reaffirmed in Astra Agro’s Sustainability Policy issued in September 2015. In conducting sustainable business practices, we commit to zero use of fire for new land clearing, replanting, or other developments. Moreover, we will actively manage fire and haze mitigation in our concessions and surrounding areas.

In implementing our Zero Burn Policy, we have developed a land fire prevention system  that complies with national laws and regulations. The land fire prevention system is updated periodically and has been implemented in all subsidiaries. Records of fire incidents are disclosed regularly in quarterly progress reports.

Since 2017, we have assisted village communities around our concessions through land fire prevention and mitigation programs. We establish and foster local communities by developing MPA (Community Cares for Fire) institutions (link to MPA leaflet). The MPA establishment requires a long process involving communities from different ethnic backgrounds, cultures, and livelihoods. As of 2022, the Company has fostered 111 MPAs in zone one village of its subsidiaries and has achieved positive results in minimizing the frequency of fires occurrence on community land.

We prioritize a multi-stakeholder collaboration program to maximize efforts to anticipate forest and land fires. This initiative involves stakeholders such as the Police, TNI (Indonesian National Army), Manggala Agni (National Fire Brigade), local governments, companies and communities. Specifically, this program is implemented systematically and collaboratively through several stages, including (1) Area identification and root cause analysis of landscape fires, (2) Planning of land and forest fire anticipatory program and allocating roles to all parties, and (3) Intensive coordination between parties in the implementation of the program.

The multi-stakeholder collaboration program has been implemented in our concession areas in Riau and South Kalimantan which are classified as fire-prone. Since 2018, the Company has joined the cluster-based forest and land fire prevention and mitigation alliance in the Pelalawan-Riau Regency. In 2020, the Company has also joined the forest and land prevention and mitigation alliance of the Private Sector Coalition for Siak Hijau (Koalisi Privat Sektor Siak Hijau) in the Siak-Riau Regency area.