APRIL and the Fire Free Alliance

In 2015, APRIL's fire prevention efforts led it to launch its pioneering Fire Free Village Program (FFVP), a fire prevention program which aims to raise awareness about the negative impacts of land burning.

That year, APRIL recorded a 90 per cent reduction in fire incidence among the villages which were participating in the FFVP – the same year that notoriously saw the worst fire season in Indonesia.

In 2016, APRIL continued to grow the FFVP, and the company was among the founding members of the Fire Free Alliance (FFA).

The FFA is a voluntary multi-company group comprising forestry and agriculture companies which works with NGOs and other partners to resolve Indonesia's persistent fire and haze problems arising from land burning, primarily through emphasis on a fire and haze prevention approach.

Besides APRIL, members of the FFA currently include Asian Agri, Wilmar International Limited, Musim Mas, IDH, PM.Haze, Sime Darby, and IOI.

The FFA is dedicated to supporting the Indonesian Government's commitment to a haze-free ASEAN by 2020.

As part of its on-going efforts, the FFA has expanded fire awareness outreach to more than 200 villages, covering at least 1.5 million hectares of land in various parts of Indonesia.

Among the fire training projects that FFA members run with participating villages are "no-burn reward" programs, which reward villages which have no forest fires, and programs which recruit individuals from local communities as fire prevention advocates and fire suppression specialists at the village level.

Besides providing suitable agricultural alternatives to fire for land management activities, FFA members also develop a range of community awareness tools which focus on raising awareness about the unsuitable use of fire and the impacts of burning.

The FFA enables members, including APRIL, to share and learn best practices of fire prevention programs with each other.

“The FFA demonstrates how the private sector in partnership with civil society groups can advance the fire-free cause through voluntary action.

“Collaboration under the FFA umbrella will help expand a successful fire prevention strategy to the broader landscape,” said Lucita Jasmin, APRIL's Director for Sustainability and External Affairs.