The Eyes on the Forest (EoF) coalition has found that the forest conservation policy of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), one of the world’s biggest pulp and paper producers, covers up almost three decades deforestation and destruction in Sumatra.
“The policy of APP protects a maximum of 5,000 hectares while the company has destroyed more 1.4 million hectares,” said Muslim Rasyid of Jikalahari.
Concession permits obtained by APP’s provider companies in Riau have destroyed more than 680,000 hectares of forests since 1984. Around 83 percent of the destroyed forests used to be home to the Sumatran tiger and Sumatran elephant.
“The APP’s new policy has no commitment to rehabilitate natural forests and peatland to compensate for serious damage in the past,” said Hajriansyah Usman of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (WALHI).
He said the appraisal of high conservation value forest (HCVF) and high carbon stock forest was conducted in concession areas that had just been cleared. This tactic decreased both the conservation and carbon stock value of the forests.
“Our analysis concluded that APP has manipulated the public with its conservation activities so they are unaware of violations it conducted in the past,” said Hajriansyah. (ebf)