Pulp and paper giant APRIL announces forest conservation policy, Greenpeace suspends campaign

aprilJakarta, 3 June, 2015 – APRIL, one of the world’s largest producers of pulp and paper, has today announced an end to deforestation as part of a new ‘Sustainable Forest Management Plan’.

 

Deforestation for pulp and paper, and palm oil, is a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions in Indonesia. If properly implemented, APRIL’s pledge will prove to be another major step by business towards protecting Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands.

APRIL’s parent company, the Royal Golden Eagle group,  also announced that new sustainability policies will be implemented by all other pulp companies in the group, including an end to deforestation. Greenpeace is suspending its campaign to give APRIL and other RGE group companies time to put these new policies into practice.

“We commend APRIL for agreeing to end its deforestation, although we will be watching closely to make sure that today’s announcement leads to real change on the ground,” said Bustar Maitar, Head of Greenpeace’s Forest Campaign in Indonesia.

“Today’s commitment from APRIL and the RGE Group is yet more proof that forest protection is the way forward for plantation companies in Indonesia.”

APRIL has agreed to a number of new conservation measures, including using the High Carbon Stock Approach to identify and protect forest areas remaining in their concessions. The company has also agreed to protect forested peatlands and has established a Peat Expert Working Group to help it develop international best practice for managing peatlands to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Indonesia’s peatlands store an estimated 60 billion metric tons of carbon. When peatlands are drained for plantations this carbon is released, and the landscape becomes susceptible to smouldering fires which blanket the region in an annual haze.

APRIL has also agreed to work collaboratively and transparently to resolve its outstanding social conflicts and to support development opportunities for local communities that do not involve deforestation.

APRIL’s announcement follows similar decisions by other major players in the pulp and palm oil sectors to protect Indonesia’s forests and peatlands. In September, some of the biggest palm oil producers in Indonesia, including APRIL’s sister companies Asian Agri and Apical, agreed to end deforestation. Equally, there is growing support from the business community in Indonesia for a development model based on forest protection.

“President Jokowi promised to stop plantation companies damaging the environment or harming communities. Yet even though Indonesia’s biggest pulpwood and palm oil companies are moving away from deforestation, the destruction on the ground continues. The government must now act to reform the forest sector so it works for people and the environment,” said Maitar.

Note

  1. Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd.’s (APRIL) Sustainable Forest Management Plan can be viewed here.
  2. Largely as a result of the rapid expansion of the palm oil and pulp and paper sector into Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands, by 2005 Indonesia ranked as the world’s third-highest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Loss of its forest habitat to pulp and palm oil concessions has driven endangered wildlife species such as Sumatran tiger and the orangutan closer to extinction.
  3. APRIL is the second largest pulp and paper company in Indonesia, and one of the largest pulp and paper producers in the world. Its new Sustainable Forest Management Plan (SFMP) is available on its website.
  4. Alongside APRIL’s new policy, the Royal Golden Eagle Group has published sustainability principles that are to be implemented by its pulp companies, including Toba Pulp Lestari, Asia Symbol and Sateri. Those principles are available on its website.  The palm oil companies in the RGE Group, Asian Agri and Apical, announced new sustainability policies, including an end to deforestation, in September 2014 (see here).
  5. APRIL and Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) together account for approximately 80% of Indonesian pulp production. APP announced a new Forest Conservation Policy that included an end to deforestation in 2013. These companies were the only large-scale producers of pulp using rainforest fibre. The other pulp companies either use plantation acacia only, or produce very small volumes of pulp.

Summary of APRIL’s Sustainable Forest Management Plan commitments

  • An end to further development of any forested land, including peat forests.
  • Working with international experts to develop best practice peatland management at landscape level to reduce and avoid greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Protocols to ensure that communities can exercise their right to free prior and informed consent, and to resolve conflicts with communities affected by current operations.
  • Conserving an area of land equal in size to APRIL’s plantations.
  • Additional measures to support responsible forest management throughout APRIL’s global supply chain.