Companies Pricing in Forest Fires to Make Way for Palm Oil in Indonesia

Peat swamps, primary forests, and orangutans methodically going up in flames

By: Gregory McCann

The penalties that Indonesia is levying on plantation companies illegally replacing protected primary forest amount to little more than a slap on the wrist, environmentalists say, and when they do get handed out, are usually delayed for many years so that even if they are in the millions of dollars, they are paid in small installments …