KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — Malaysian plantation concessions in Indonesia have denied any involvement in a slash-and-burn farming approach said to have led to the decades-old haze problem in the region, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel said today.

The denial comes after the Indonesian authorities said it will file charges against the local unit of Malaysia’s third-largest palm oil planter, PT Adei Plantations, a unit of Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, over illegal fires that blanketed Singapore and Malaysia with hazardous smog last month.

“They have denied and said they adhere to (the) zero burning (policy),” Palanivel told reporters after the 15th meeting of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) on trans-boundary haze pollution here.

The minister added that Sime Darby’s deputy chief executive officer had also given the Indonesian government the green light to retake some of its fire-prone land to prevent wild fires.

"They also promised to educate farmers farming on their land on open burning," he said.

The Indonesian police said they are also investigating four other companies for suspected involvement in the fires but have not identified them. The republic’s environment ministry last month named eight Southeast Asian companies as possible suspects.

KL Kepong has denied wrongdoing, saying it has a zero-burning policy and the fires were outside its concessions.

An individual found guilty of starting a forest fire can face a jail term of up to 10 years and fines of up to 10 billion rupiah (RM318,655).

Firms found guilty of the offence can also have their profits seized, operations shut down and be sued for damages.

An investigation by industry body, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), found no evidence that KL Kepong, a member of the group, was responsible for the fires, a spokesman said.

“The RSPO has cleared KL Kepong of this issue. We have made our statements to the relevant parties and we stand by our statements,” said Roy Lim, the company’s plantations director.

“Looking again at the satellite data, the hot spots are all outside our territory.”

The satellite mapping data, provided to the RSPO by KL Kepong, show Adei concessions cover around 14,900 hectares. Of that total, 800 hectares are controlled by local community members.

More than a dozen people had been arrested for lighting fires, police said. But it was unclear if they were employees of any of the eight named companies or independent farmers.

Some farmers illegally clear land using “slash and burn” techniques during the dry season from June to September.