A new report released by the NGO coalition, Eyes on the Forest, has exposed a new case of deforestation by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) via its controlled timber suppliers PT Arara Abadi and PT Sekato Pratama Makmur (SPM). The report finds that the company cleared natural forest and other natural habitats to develop new acacia plantations on deep peatland.
The report includes georeferenced photos and maps, based on Sentinel SWIR satellite image analysis, use of Global Forest Change data and ground monitoring. Eyes on the Forest found indications of deforestation, natural vegetation clearance and plantation expansion conducted by PT Arara Abadi and PT Sekato Pratama Makmur inside UNESCO Giam Siak Kecil-Bukit Batu Biosphere Reserve and Sumatran elephant habitat. The area includes peat of over 4-meters in depth, which is preserved by the law in Indonesia, and a crucial global carbon sink. According to the report, some of the clearing has been carried out outside the concession boundary.
APP started its business in the mid nineties, and has become Indonesia’s largest pulp producer, in the process devastating two million hectares of rainforests. Ten years ago the company promised to stop deforestation, to respect local communities’ rights and to care about the global climate. These promises have not been kept..
APP’s ”Forest Conservation Policy”, though poorly implemented, has been aggressively used to win customers and financiers all over the world. At the same time, the wealth that was accumulated by deforesting Indonesia has been promptly diverted into an ambitious plan aiming to dominate the global pulp & paper sector, by acquiring pulp mills in Europe, Brazil and North America, under the umbrella of a conglomerate called Paper Excellence, controlled by APP owners.
In addition to a number of mills in China, Europe and North America, APP now controls Eldorado, the second producer in Brazil, and Domtar, one of the major producers in North America.
But this is not enough and Paper Excellence/APP has announced it is seeking to acquire another major producer in North America, Resolute Forest Products.
Now that it feels it has won the market, apparently APP doesn’t seem to feel obliged to implement its commitments. Even after its security security contractors were involved in the murder of the 26-year old land-rights activis Indra Pelani, the company kept using he violence against local communities, or to jail villagers for planting on their own traditional land. Still APP suppliers and controlled companies have unresolved conflicts with over a hundred communities in Sumatra and Borneo. APP’s operations are still deadly for tigers and elephants.
Meanwhile, the company’s operations on dried peat produce 43.8 million tonnes of climate gasses emissions, higher than those of 33 low emitting countries. They are also a major cause and a multiplier of recurring huge forest fires, affecting the atmosphere and public health in the whole region.
Recently, APP also announced plans for one of the world’s biggest expansions of pulping capacity by tripling the production of its mill up to a capacity of 7 million tonnes per year. This will require the conversion of millions of hectares of land in the coming years, and it appears that APP will not let anything stand in its way to acquire this fibre, not even Sumatran elephant habitat and a UNESCO reserve, as documented by the new investigation by Eyes on the Forest.
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