Muhamad Al Azhari Jakarta Globe 19 Feb 14;
Jakarta. Asia Pacific Resources International, a leading fiber, pulp and paper producer, has called on environmental groups as well as the government to pay more attention to unmanaged land, as it is prone not only to illegal logging, but also slash-and-burn farming methods.
“These unregulated pieces of land are the cause of many problems we have today,” Petrus Gunarso, April’s director for sustainability, said during a media visit to BeritaSatu on Tuesday.
Petrus said illegal logging and slash-and-burn farming activities have contributed to the loss of export income.
According to official forestry ministry data, Indonesia has forest areas of roughly 130 million hectares. But only 48 million hectares are in good condition, and an additional 50 hectares have been deemed unmanaged, which means the government has not appointed an outside party to manage the area.
“The land has not been designated as a conservation area; it remains unregulated, it has zero community developments, but it has experienced unforeseeable changes,” Petrus said.
“If [environmental groups] say they care about Indonesia’s forests, why not help manage these 50 hectares of land? The local government may find it too costly to supervise such a vast area,” he said.
APRIL, a Singapore-based management company, which controls pulp and paper businesses of the Sukanto Tanoto family’s Royal Golden Eagle, has been accused by environment groups — particularly Greenpeace — of greatly contributing to deforestation in Indonesia.
APRIL and its Indonesian affiliates currently control some 817,000 hectares of land throughout the country, 51 percent of which is suitable for planting.
But with nearly half of the company’s concession areas located in Sumatra’s Riau province — an area witnessing one of fastest rates of deforestation in the world — the group’s operation is often accused of supporting illegal logging.
“Anyone can check our supply chain. We have always been transparent,” APRIL president director Kusnan Rahmin said, adding that the company is ready to show its commitment to anyone who wishes to investigate its efforts to protect, manage and enhance forest areas.
APRIL announced a renewed commitment to sustainable practices this week, promising to cease expansion of its plantation holdings by the end of this year, and to halt forest clearing entirely by 2019.
The company has also established a no-burn policy in its concession.
Greenpeace Indonesia, a vocal critic of the pulp company, fired back saying that it’s efforts restore peatland damaged by the company’s activities in Pelalawan, Riau, was hindered by April.
“We used to worked with the Teluk Meranti community [in Pelalawan] which was impacted [by] April’s operations,” said Yuyun Indradi, a campaigner at Greenpeace. “We supported collaboration with the community in developing a nursery to restore destroyed peatland caused by April’s operation. Unfortunately, April also destroying the effort of restoration done by the community with GP support.”
The NGO said it would continue campaigning against companies accused of cutting down Indonesia’s forests.
“Our mission is to stop deforestation,” Yuyun said. “I was witnessing their destructive operations in Riau and it was heartbreaking to see all of the devastation.”
— Jonathan Vit contributed to this report
