Indonesia: Massive APP greenwash campaign is mostly hogwash, finds new report

WWF 14 Dec 11;

Pekanbaru, Sumatra – The Senepis Tiger Sanctuary – a prominent feature of the massive international greenwash campaign of paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) – is being subject to clear cutting operations by one of the company’s wood suppliers, an investigation by WWF and partners finds.

“The truth behind APP’s Greenwash”, a new report released today by Sumatra-based NGO coalition Eyes on the Forest, estimates that APP, part of the Sinar Mas Group, has pulped more than two million hectares of Indonesia’s tropical forests since it started paper production there in 1984.

According to the report, APP’s continued clear-cutting of forests including elephant, tiger and orang-utan habitat and the immense climate change impacts of draining deep peats to establish high turnover plantations is completely contrary to the image of environmental responsibility it is pushing through front groups and media advertising.

The truth behind APP's greenwash

The truth behind APP’s greenwash details how the company made the same promise on moving to 100% plantation sourcing of timber for major pulp mills four times – missing self-imposed deadlines to stop using native forest timber in 2004, 2007 and 2009.

APP is now announcing it will meet its commitment on timber sourcing by 2015 – a deadline Eyes on the Forest says it expects APP to also miss.

Through field investigations in June and October 2011 and historical satellite image analysis up to June 2011, Eyes on the Forest found that the APP supplier, PT Ruas Utama Jaya has been clear cutting tropical forest inside the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary.

“This is clear proof that the global advertising claims of APP that it actively protects Sumatran tiger are highly exaggerated”, said Anwar Purwoto of WWF.

The investigation shows a tiger sanctuary reality vastly different from the picture being pushed to the world media and through various front groups by APP.

After apparently trying to halt a government-proposed Senepis National Park that would have protected tiger habitat targeted by APP for pulping, the company switched to advertising a leading role in creating the “Senepis Tiger Sanctuary” in 2006, according to The truth behind APP’s greenwash.

The report alleges a very minor additional APP conservation contribution for Sumatra’s critically endandgered tigers - some 86% of the sanctuary is located on the already-protected forests of a Forest Stewardship Council-certified logging concession held by unrelated company PT Diamond Raya Timber.

Now, according to the report, at least one APP supplier is engaged in clear cutting and drainage of the small areas that were APP’s only real contribution to the sanctuary.

"Misleading customers about the brutal reality on the ground"

“It’s appalling that APP is pulping even the small blocks of forest it had told the world it would protect as tiger habitat,” Hariansyah Usman of WALHI Riau said. “This report shows a different picture to this and other, much-touted APP 'conservation projects' ".

“We would like the Sinar Mas Group’s buyers and investors who read this report to realize how APP’s media campaigns are exploiting their lack of knowledge or inexperience about Indonesia and how they mislead their customers about the brutal reality on the ground.”

“APP is interested only in feeding its giant mills with as much tropical forest wood as possible, and hoping that customers and investors will continue to believe conservation commitments and advertisements which past experience shows to be unrealistic.”

In the Netherlands, APP’s print and television advertisements have been judged misleading to the public by the country’s Advertising Codes Commission. Many global buyers, including some of the biggest paper users in the world, have ceased purchasing from APP. However, APP sells office paper, paper-based packaging and other paper products and is increasingly expanding globally into tissue products like toilet paper, including the brand names Paseo and LIVI.

“We urge global buyers and investors to no longer support Asia Pulp & Paper’s continuing shameless destruction of Indonesia’s tropical forests and the homes of Sumatra’s last surviving tigers,” says Muslim Rasyid of Jikalahari, NGOs network. “Join the growing list of other responsible companies that have cut all ties with SMG/APP.”

Indonesian paper firm logging tiger sanctuary: NGOs
Angela Dewan (AFP) Google News 14 Dec 11;

JAKARTA — A coalition of environmental groups headed by WWF accused Indonesia's biggest paper producer Asia Pulp & Paper Wednesday of clearing forest in a tiger sanctuary set up by the company.

The report, "The truth behind APP's greenwashing" by the coalition Eyes on the Forest, published satellite maps showing cleared land within the Senepis tiger sanctuary that Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) established on Sumatra island.

"APP has repeatedly used this tiger sanctuary as part of their sustainability campaign. They have lied to the public and their buyers by saying the area is being conserved for tigers," WWF-Indonesia spokesman Aditya Bayunanda told AFP.

The report also showed maps that indicated 86 percent of the sanctuary was already classified by the government as partly protected, meaning that sustainable selective logging can be carried out.

"We looked at the satellite images and matched that with what was happening on the ground. We always use satellite imagery because companies can't hide from that," Bayunanda said.

Environmental group Greenpeace has in recent years waged highly successful campaigns against APP, the fourth-largest paper company in the world, saying it has destroyed millions of hectares (acres) of tropical forest.

More than a dozen major international companies, such as Barbie maker Mattel, KFC and Walmart, have dropped paper packaging contracts with APP since Greenpeace exposed what it says is the company's unsustainable practices.

APP said the allegations in the latest report were "totally false" and published online a government map indicating that the area it was carrying out logging was outside the sanctuary.

"We have also published pictures of the real Senepis tiger sanctuary which show that it has been preserved as dense, natural forest," APP managing director Aida Greenbury said in a statement.

The tiger reserve sits in Riau province on carbon-rich and biodiverse peatland and is surrounded by vast tracts of destroyed forest, cleared mostly for paper and palm oil plantations.

The sanctuary is home to some of the world's rarest wildcats, including the critically endangered Sumatran tiger, of which fewer than 400 remain.

WWF said the sanctuary area was not connected by corridors to other forests, so land clearing there put the tigers closer to extinction.

"Riau has lost so much of its lowland forest now that each one left is like a sanctuary for animals," Bayunanda said.

"If this land is cleared, they will have nowhere to go."

Indonesia is home to around 10 percent of the world's tropical forest, and has struggled for decades to control rampant destruction on its lushest islands, Sumatra and Kalimantan, as well as in Papua, the western half of New Guinea island.

The government in May implemented a two-year ban on issuing new permits to clear primary forests and peatland in a carbon-cutting deal backed with $1 billion from Norway.

UN data show that deforestation and forest degradation accounts for 70 percent of carbon emissions in Indonesia, the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitter.

The country has pledged to cut emissions by 26 percent from 2009 levels -- or 41 percent with international help -- by 2020.

APP Did Damage Tiger Sanctuary, WWF Maintains
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 16 Dec 11;

Environment group WWF Indonesia defended a report it had co-sanctioned after wood supplier Asia Pulp & Paper accused the organization of releasing fictitious findings related to the preservation of a tiger sanctuary in Sumatra.

In its report, “The Truth Behind APP’s Greenwashing,” a coalition of environmental groups called Eyes on the Forest accused APP of clearcutting tropical forest inside the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary in Sumatra, which APP advertises globally as part of its purported commitment to tiger conservation. The EoF coalition was headed by WWF Indonesia.

APP said the report contained “false allegations regarding the company’s operations.”

“The serious allegations made by EoF about the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary are wrong in every important regard. The government map, which we have released, clearly shows that EoF’s pictures are from a legal pulpwood concession operated by one of our suppliers and not from inside the sanctuary,” APP managing director Aida Greenbury said.

“We have also published pictures of the real Senepis Tiger sanctuary, which show that it has been preserved as dense, natural forest.”

Greenbury called WWF International to distance itself “from this poorly researched and inaccurate report, which does not help anyone who really cares about preserving the natural environment and wildlife of Sumatra.”

Greenbury said APP had been assessed and certified by many of the world’s leading authorities on sustainable forest management.

Aditya Bayunanda of WWF Indonesia said the group had based the research on the map produced by APP when they established the 5,000-hectare sanctuary in 2006.

“[APP] has boasted that the area will be dedicated for a tiger sanctuary but they destroyed it,” he said. “We are sticking to our findings.”

Aditya said the data used in the EoF report was taken from satellite imagery that was verified by observation on the field.

“There is no way it is fabricated,” he said. “From the satellite image, you can clearly see the deforestation in those areas.”

The report also accuses APP of damaging the environment and contributing to the destruction of tiger, elephant and orangutan habitats.