Ten years ago (2013) Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) Sinarmas published its Forest Conservation Policy (FCP), in which it pledged to halt deforestation and peatland conversion as well as to respect human rights while carrying out its activities. Yesterday (25 October), on the tenth anniversary of the APP declarations, Greenpeace International published a report analyzing whether the declarations have been implemented. The conclusions of the analysis are clear, despite initially making some progress in implementing the policy, since 2017 APP has breached a number of pledges made under its FCP.
The main violations listed in the Greenpeace report include:
- deforestation of between 46,000 and 75,000 ha in APP Sinarmas supplier concessions or companies connected to APP Sinarmas in just 10 years between 2013 and 2022
- 127,000 hectares of degraded land needing restoration within APP Sinarmas claimed 600,000 hectare protected area,
- changing deforestation cutoff date allowing APP to source from suppliers that have deforested up until December 2020 (initially February 2013),
- clearing of approximately 3,500 hectares of peatland in APP Sinarmas’s concessions or those of its major suppliers between August 2018 and June 2020 and 53 km of new drainage canals cutting through peatlands,
- little progress on the pledge to restore 7,000 hectare peatland plantation,
- ongoing intimidation and aggressive action against local communities reported by NGOs and the media bringing into question APP Sinarmas’s promise on Free Prior and Informed Consent,
Five years ago, on the 5th anniversary of the APP Sinarmas FCP, ten international and Indonesian NGOs published a statement highlighting the five issues indicating that the company was not on a track to fulfill the provisions of the FCP. Today, it is clear that the analysis made at the time was accurate, and that APP’s policy in many respects was limited to empty declarations on paper with no actual implementation into effective protection of unique Indonesian ecosystems.
We urge APP to go back to genuinely implementing the declarations of its Forest Conservation Policy. This is a bare minimum if we are to start thinking about building trust in the intention of this company to reduce its negative impact on the climate, environment and local communities.
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