Press Release
Pulp Industry Undermines Indonesian President’s Historic Commitment to Dramatic GHG Emissions Reductions
Press Release -- for immediate release -- 8 July 2010
PEKANBARU, INDONESIA -- Two of the world’s largest paper companies, Shanghaibased
Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and Singapore-based APRIL, undermine the recent
agreement between Indonesia and Norway “to contribute to significant reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, forest degradation and peatland
conversion” – an investigation by Eyes on the Forest found.
The two companies together pulped five percent of the remaining natural forest in
Sumatra’s Riau Province, twice the size of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, an analysis of
2009’s annual cutting licenses (RKT) shows that these licenses were issued for the
extraction of high timber volumes per hectare. Most of the clearance of these high quality
forests occurred on peat soil more than three meters deep in violation of existing law.
Draining of peat soil and clearing of natural forests has been the main source of
Indonesia’s huge greenhouse gas emissions.
“APP and APRIL are undermining our President’s commitment to reduce the country’s
emissions by up to 41 percent. We call on APP and APRIL to immediately stop using any
timber associated with the conversion of tropical rainforest and draining of peatlands,”
said Ian Kosasih of WWF Indonesia. Both companies have advertised for years that they
would no longer use natural forest fiber for their pulp production by 2009. But Eyes on
the Forest estimates that the 2009 permits they acquired to clear natural forest in Riau
alone may represent up to 40% and 84% of the raw material needs of APP’s and APRIL’s
Riau pulp mills, respectively. “Customers should take the intensive green washing
campaigns by both companies exactly for what they are, expensive PR stunts designed to
fool the world,” he added, said Santo Kurniawan, coordinator of Jikalahari, an NGO
network in Riau.
In his agreement with Norway, the President committed to institute a two year
moratorium on all new concessions for conversion of peat and natural forest from
January 2011. Yet immediately following the commitment, the Indonesian Ministry of
Forestry issued new permits to drain deep peat and clear natural forest in Riau. The new
licenses may represent up to 29% and 50% of APP’s and APRIL’s Riau mill’s raw material
needs. APP and APRIL seem to be in a great hurry to clear Riau’s remaining forests
before the moratorium starts, putting the President into a very embarrassing position.
This is just what he had feared when he spoke to the media immediately after the
signing of the Oslo agreement in May this year. It appears the announcement of the
moratorium has been a signal to clear even more forests even faster.
“We call on the Ministry to back up our President’s historic commitment to reduce
Indonesia’s carbon emissions, by retracting all new annual cutting licenses,” said Santo
Kurniawan. “Since the agreement with Norway was signed many in the world have
doubted that Indonesia was serious and believed business-as-usual would continue. Let
us prove them to be wrong.”
“APP and APRIL affiliated companies continue to clear natural forests and drain deep peat
while issues of license legality and corruption are being investigated by Indonesia’s
Corruption Eradication Commission and Presidential task forces,” said Hariansyah Usman
of Walhi Riau. “We urge our government to put on hold all existing licenses and
investigate their legality and sustainability. Any forest loss resulting from the irregular The Eyes on the Forest investigation found irrefutable photographic evidence exposing APP and APRIL’s environmental claims as shameless green washing campaigns. The 2009 and early 2010 operations by the two companies have cleared tropical rainforest and drained peat soils. They destroyed high conservation values areas, protected
peatlands, the outer isles of the province, communities’ livelihoods and the habitats of
endangered species.
APP has been draining peat and clearing natural forests in Riau’s UNESCO Biosphere
Reserve while advertising globally its full support for the reserve. APP has been clearing
crucial habitats of the critically endangered Sumatran tiger increasing the often deadly
conflicts between people and tigers, while widely advertising its contribution to tiger
conservation in the same area in this “Year of the Tiger”. APP has been clearing High
Conservation Value Forests that it had publicly committed to protect, while promoting its
commitment to protect high conservation value forests in its PR campaigns.
APRIL has been clearing High Conservation Value Forests in deep peat areas, which WWF
had delineated and the company had agreed to protect. By doing so APRIL broke the
agreement with its international auditor, Rainforest Alliance’s SmartWood Program, who
suspended the company’s FSC Controlled Wood certificate.
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For further information please contact:
Santo Kurniawan, Jikalahari ph: +62 812 7631 775
Hariansyah Usman, WALHI Riau ph: +62 812 7669 9967
Nursamsu, WWF Indonesia, Riau-based ph: +62 812 7537 317
Afdhal Mahyuddin, EoF Editor ph: +62 813 8976 8248
Notes to editors:
Eyes on the Forest May 2010 Investigative Report published today is available for
download at: http://www.eyesontheforest.or.id
Photographic evidence of natural forest clearance by APP and APRIL are collected at
Gallery of evidences: deforestation by:
APP (1) at:
http://eyesontheforest.or.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=302&Itemid=1
APP (2) at:
http://eyesontheforest.or.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=303&Itemid=1
APRIL (1) at:
http://eyesontheforest.or.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=304&Itemid=1
APP (2) at:
http://eyesontheforest.or.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=303&Itemid=1
APRIL (1) at:
http://eyesontheforest.or.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=304&Itemid=1
APRIL (2) at:
http://eyesontheforest.or.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=305&Itemid=1
The Letter of Intent between the Indonesian and Norwegian governments is available
at: http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/SMK/Vedlegg/2010/Indonesia_avtale.pdf.
The majority of Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the clearing of
natural forests often standing on deep peat soil.
Riau Province’s peat forests are believed to contain the largest store of peat carbon in
Southeast Asia. They might just be the world’s most valuable carbon stores per
hectare at a time when global governments and industries are increasingly willing to
pay for the avoidance of carbon emissions.
Riau, Sumatra is an epicenter of global pulp and palm oil production. It is the main
resource extraction base of the two global pulp & paper giants Asia Pulp & Paper
(APP) headquartered in Shanghai, China and Asia Pacific Resources International
Holdings (APRIL) headquartered in Singapore, and it has plantation of the who-iswho
of the country’s palm oil producers. See WWF (2008) Deforestation, Forest
Degradation, Biodiversity Loss and CO2 Emissions in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia. WWF
Indonesia Technical Report, Jakarta, Indonesia.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2008/WWFPresitem7596.html
Norway pledged to pay Indonesia $1 billion for reducing carbon emissions through
rain forest and peat preservation. Riau province, considered by many to have the
highest annual GHG emissions from deforestation, forest degradation and peat in
Indonesia, is listed as one of the candidates for a REDD+ pilot province.
Riau still has some of the most species-rich forests on Earth. The province contains
one of just two “global priority tiger conservation landscapes” identified by leading
tiger scientists in 2006 as critical for the long-term survival of the Sumatran tiger.
On legality and corruption issues associated with APP and APRIL, see Eyes on the
Forest December 2009 Investigative Report:
http://eyesontheforest.or.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=295&Ite
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