Four months ago, Indonesia’s Supreme Court ordered a palm oil grower to pay $26 million for damages to the forest in Aceh, but last week, a different palm oil company was acquitted of a similar crime in a district court. PT Bumi Mekar Hijau was on trial for $574 million in fines for failing to prevent or intentionally lighting hundreds of fires across 20,000 hectares of land. The lawsuit is expected to reach the Supreme Court. Critics of the acquittal wanted to see more emphasis placed on the human aspect of the fires, which are suspected to have killed 19 people. The Indonesian government will appeal the ruling and the environment minister, Siti Nurbaya, plans to oversee the case. Many palm oil companies are being investigated following the 2015 fires that resulted in damage the size of the state of Vermont. For the full story, see http://news.mongabay.com/2016/01/indonesia-loses-flagship-case-against-company-accused-of-burning/ and http://news.mongabay.com/2016/01/indonesias-environment-czar-to-personally-oversee-rematch-with-bmh/. Earlier: http://elr.info/international/international-update/indonesian-president-bans-peatlands-destruction, http://elr.info/international/international-update/singapore-closes-schools-due-air-pollution and http://elr.info/international/international-update/indonesia-supreme-court-upholds-26m-fine-oil-palm-company-cutting-and-burning-forest