Asia Pulp & Paper Vows Commitment To Stop Clear Cutting Natural Rainforests In Indonesia

The often embattled Asia Pulp & Paper Group, Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper producer – ranking fourth largest in the world – says it has decided to put “an end to the clearing of natural forests across its entire supply chain in Indonesia.”

Asia Pulp & Paper logging truck passing through the degraded lands in Indonesia. Photo by David Gilbert, and provided by the Rainforest Action Network.

APP says that all of its suppliers have suspended natural forest clearance while an independent assessment takes place to identify areas of high conservation value that will be protected through a long-term management program.

APP has been repeatedly attack over the years from environmental groups (including Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, the Rainforest Action Network, and the environmental coalition Eyes on the Forest) with allegations that it has indiscriminately clear cut many of Indonesia’s  most pristine natural rainforests, including sanctuaries for endangered species including the Sumatran tigers, orangutans, and elephants.  

A Greenpeace’s report called How Sinar Mas Is Pulping The Planet took an investigative look at the practices of APP’s parent company in two vital rainforest areas in Sumatra – the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape in Central Sumatra, which is one of the last refuges for the Sumatran tiger; and the Kerumutan Peat Swamp forest, which is another important tiger habitat and carbon rich peatland.

Greenpeace said that it “documented Sinar Mas in the act of clearing rainforests and destroying peatland in these areas.”

In addition, Eyes on the Forest published a report called APP: default on environmental covenant, which accused the company of converting parts of the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary in Sumatra into pulpwood plantations.

APP responded saying that the Eyes on the Forest report made “clearly false allegations regarding the company’s operations.”

APP added that the satellite maps published by Eyes on the Forest were actually from “legally operated pulpwood concessions outside the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary,” further saying that the conservation concessions set aside are “actually almost 50 percent larger than what is required by the Government of Indonesia’s independent high conservation value forest assessments of the area.”

IPO Science said in its Environmental Research Letters on mapping and monitoring deforestation and forest degradation in Sumatra between 1990 and 2010 that, “Indonesia experiences the second highest rate of deforestation among tropical countries.

“Within Indonesia, Sumatra Island stands out due to the intensive forest clearing that has resulted in the conversion of 70 percent of the island’s forested area through 2010.”

The IPO Science report finds that deforestation and forest degradation are the second leading causes of “greenhouse gas emissions following fossil fuel combustion, accounting for over 17 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.”

The IPO Science report further explains that, “About 75 percent of the emissions from tropical deforestation and forest degradation have been from developing countries containing large extents of tropical forest, including Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia.

According to the IPO Science report, among the biggest factors contributing to the deforestation problems in Indonesia are the economic needs of its people.

This report finds that “almost 65 million, or about 27 percent of the Indonesian population depends directly on these forests for their livelihoods. As a consequence of economic and population pressure, Indonesia experiences one of the world’s highest deforestation rates, second only to Brazil, with an estimated annual gross emission from deforestation of 502 million t CO2 equivalent.”

The destruction of forest ecosystems has also become a major issue, with the IPO Science report noting that primary forests of the humid tropics shelter a major portion of biological diversity on land, including an estimated 80 percent of all land species.

This report adds that “these forests are often converted to monoculture forest plantations and argo-industrial estates such as oil palm [plantations], greatly reducing forest biodiversity and carbon storage of forest biomass.”

In Greenpeace’s report How Sinar Mas Is Pulping The Plant, the environmental group says that, “The destruction of rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands is the key reason why Indonesia accounts for around a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation.”

Greenpeace also estimates that Indonesia ranks as the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter with palm oil, pulp, and paper industries as the major drivers of these escalating emissions.

Greenpeace adds that while APP is one of the biggest producers of pulp and paper in the world, Sinar Mas is also a key player in the palm oil industry within Indonesia, with Golden Agri Resources (GAR) as the parent holding company for all of Sinar Mas’ palm oil interests.

Through GAR subsidiaries, such as PT SMART, Sinar Mas is Indonesia’s biggest palm oil producer, with Greenpeace saying that the company is “responsible for 10 percent of the country’s palm oil production.”

Negative publicity of clear cutting natural forests in Indonesia has pushed many global companies (including Nestle, Unilever, Kraft, Staples, Office Depot, and Mattle) to cut ties with Sinar Mas operations.

Last year, Nestlé committed that its products “not be associated with deforestation.” The company said to ensure the palm oil it sources is not associated with deforestation, “it is essential to know where it comes from,” and work proactively with suppliers to build traceability.

In 2009, Unilever said that it “decided to suspend all future purchases of palm oil from the Indonesian company PT SMART, part of the Sinar Mas group,” until it could provide verifiable proof that none of its plantations are contributing to the destruction of high conservation value forests and expanding onto peatlands.” Unilever cited investigative reports by Greenpeace as a prompt for the decision.

As part of Sinar Mas’ recent promise to stop clear cutting natural forests in Indonesia, a high carbon stock assessment is being undertaken by The Forest Trust, a global non-profit that helps businesses build responsible supply chains that identify and address embedded social and environmental issues.

The Forest Trust said it is working with APP to ensure that future plantation developments do not take place in these forests.

Earlier this month, as part of Sinar Mas’ forest conservation policy, The Forest Trust carried out a “thorough technical study into alleged allegations of APP suppliers clearing forest in the West Kalimantan Province [of Indonesia]” and has produced a “report which shows no evidence of any violation of APP’s forest clearance moratorium.”

The Forest Trust has also been working with GAR to ensure that the company “has no deforestation footprint.”

The Forest Trust said that its forest conservation policy is focusing on there being:

• no development on high carbon stock forests.
• no development on high conservation value forest areas.
• no development on peatlands.
• free, prior, and informed consent from indigenous and local communities.
• compliance with all relevant laws.
• compliance with the National Interpretation of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Principals and Criteria

Currently, there is a logging moratorium in Indonesia for all official forest land uses. IOP Science explains, however, that exempt from the moratorium are forest concessions where licenses were established prior to the moratorium period, which is now scheduled to expire in May 2013.

IPO Science added that to sustainably manage a forest, a minimum of 30 percent of the total land area has to remain naturally forested.

 The concern is that in Indonesia, “governance is lacking in enforcing official forest land use policy,” and that, “This fact brings into question the potential effectiveness of government mandated restrictions on new concessions,” said IPO Science.

Expressing concerns regarding APP’s ability to keep its conservation promises, Lafcadio Cortesi, Asia director for the Rainforest Action Network, said in a statement, “Though we welcome APP’s new rainforest commitments as a milestone, the hidden story here is the controversial paper giant’s long history of broken promises, land conflicts, and human rights violations across its operations.

“The real proof of APP’s new commitment will be in how it proceeds with current plans to build what could be the largest pulp mill in the world in South Sumatra.”

Teguh Ganda Wijaya, chairman of APP Group, responded to concerns in a statement, saying, “This is a major commitment and investment for APP Group. We are doing this for the sustainability of our business and for the benefit of society.”

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