WWF 18 May 09;
Jambi, INDONESIA: A massive logging operation planned by Asian Pulp & Paper and the Sinar Mas Group (APP/SMG) and associated companies is to include large portions of the only areas that Sumatran orangutans have ever successfully been re-introduced into the wild, conservation groups active in Jambi province have learned.
Also threatened in natural forest areas around the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park are a quarter of the last critically endangered Sumatran tigers left in the wild, the Talang Mamak and Orang Rimba indigenous peoples and a significant population of endangered Sumatran elephants.
Conservation groups WARSI, the Sumatran Tiger Conservation and Protection Foundation, the Frankfurt Zoological Society, the Zoological Society of London and WWF-Indonesia learned last week that an APP/SMG joint venture had acquired the largest of the former and inactive ex PT IPA selective logging concessions in the Bukit Tigapuluh forest area - covering the orangutan reintroduction area and areas recording the most frequent sightings of tigers.
The groups have been highly critical of an APP/SMG environmental impact assessment for the neighbouring and also critically important PT Dalek Hutani Esa concession, saying it takes no account of key wildlife and indigenous peoples’ needs and should be rejected.
APP/SMG pushed a legally questionable logging road through both areas last year, opening up access for rampant illegal logging and clearing linked with increased fatalities as tigers are driven into closer contact with humans.
With the latest acquisition, APP/SMG now holds the majority of the buffer areas to the national park , including large areas the Forestry Service of Jambi and the National Park management authority agreed in 2008 to designate as the Bukit Tigapuluh Ecosystem which would be sustainably managed as natural forest.
Less than one third of the 2007 forest cover is within the National Park, with the areas most preferred by animals and indigenous peoples lying in the surrounding lowland forests now vulnerable to clearing.
“It took scientists decades to discover how to successfully reintroduce critically endangered orangutans from captivity into the wild. It could take APP just months to destroy an important part of their new habitat,” said Peter Pratje of the Frankfurt Zoological Society.
“These lowland forests are excellent habitat for orangutans, which is why we got government permission to release them here beginning in 2002. The apes are thriving now, breeding and establishing new family groups.”
Between 1985 and 2007, Sumatra island lost 12 million hectares of natural forest, a 48 percent loss in 22 years, with the accelerating rampage provoking international concern over the loss of biodiversity, smoke hazards from forest fires and peat swamp and soil degradation from clearing that made Indonesia one of the largest sources of the emissions causing climate change.
The Indonesian Ministries of Forestry, Environment, Public Works and Interior, as well as the governors of all 10 Sumatran provinces, including Jambi, announced at the World Conservation Congress in Spain last year that they were committed to protecting areas of the island with “high conservation values.”
The Bukit Tigapuluh landscape is widely regarded as one of Indonesia’s key areas of biodiversity..
“These NGOs are ready to support the Jambi governor to implement his public commitment to protecting Sumatra’s high conservation value areas and halt APP/SMG’s plan and identify alternative financing that would provide money and still save the forests, such as credits in the emerging forest carbon market,” said Ian Kosasih of WWF Indonesia.
“Bukit Tigapuluh’s forest have great potential for earning avoided deforestation credits, due to the high co-benefits of biodiversity and an indigenous community, as well as high avoidable emissions.”
Indonesia to turn ape rescue forest to pulp
Yahoo News 18 May 09;
JAKARTA (AFP) – An Indonesian paper company is planning to log an area of unprotected jungle which is being used as a reintroduction site for about 100 critically endangered orangutans, activists said Tuesday.
A coalition of environmental groups said a joint venture between Asia Pulp & Paper and Sinar Mas Group had received a licence to clear the largest portion of natural forest remaining outside Bukit Tigapuluh national park on Sumatra.
The area is home to about 100 great apes that are part of the only successful reintroduction programme for Sumatran orangutans, the sub-species most at risk of extinction, the coalition said in a statement.
It is also a crucial habitat for the last remaining Sumatran tigers and elephants left in the wild, it said.
"It took scientists decades to discover how to successfully reintroduce critically endangered orangutans from captivity into the wild. It could take APP just months to destroy an important part of their new habitat," said Peter Pratje of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, which is part of the coalition.
"These lowland forests are excellent habitat for orangutans, which is why we got government permission to release them here beginning in 2002. The apes are thriving now, breeding and establishing new family groups."
The unprotected forest is also considered essential habitat for around 100 of the last 400 critically endangered wild Sumatran tigers, as well as around 40 to 60 endangered Sumatran elephants, the activists said.
"APP's plan is devastating," said Dolly Priatna of the Zoological Society of London.
"It will almost certainly lead to more fatalities since tigers and people will be forced into closer contact with each other as the tigers? forest disappears."
At least nine people have been killed by tigers on Sumatra this year, while villagers have killed four tigers.
The coalition, which includes the Sumatran Tiger Conservation and Protection Foundation and WWF, said almost half of Sumatra's natural forest -- or 12 million hectares (29.65 million acres) -- had been cleared from 1985 to 2007.
APP has said its plans to log forest areas around Bukit Tigapuluh would actually help the orangutans, not harm them.
"Well managed pulpwood plantations act as buffer zones, which have been proven to deter illegal logging -- this ensures that protected areas remain protected," APP sustainability director Aida Greenbury said.
The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has allowed 1.8 million hectares of forest to be cleared annually since 2004, according to environmental group Greenpeace.
Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions are the third highest globally and deforestation is the largest contributor.
Paper company threatens Indonesian orangutans
Robin McDowell, Associated Press 19 May 09;
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — One of the world's largest paper companies plans to clear a large swath of unprotected forest in Indonesia being used as a sanctuary for critically endangered orangutans, according to environmental groups working in the area.
Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper has received a license to clear hundreds of acres (hectares) of trees just outside the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park on Sumatra island, WWF-Indonesia and four other groups said Tuesday.
Though not protected, the plush, lowland forests are considered an important area for biodiversity and have been used since 2002 as a release point for around 100 Sumatran rehabilitated orangutans — some orphaned when their mothers were allegedly killed by workers on nearby palm oil plantations.
"It took scientists decades to discover how to successfully reintroduce critically endangered orangutans from captivity into the wild," said Peter Pratje of the Frankfurt Zoological Society. "It could take APP just months to destroy an important part of their new habitat."
Asia Pulp & Paper acknowledged that one of its suppliers had applied for a license in the area. It made no mention of the proposed plantation's impact on orangutans, but said it would be creating a buffer between the site and Bukit Tingapuluh National Park, and a corridor linking the park with Taman Raja Reserve located east of the park.
"Because of the business APP is in, and the fact that we operate in an environmentally sensitive part of the world, we understand that we may be an easy public relations target," the company said in a statement. "Despite that, we urge stakeholders to be responsible and considered in their approach to long term sustainable development in Indonesia."
The company said last month that the government had officially allocated the forest for plantation use and that it would follow all legal procedures — including carrying out an independent, third party assessment about potential conservation threats.
There are an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, around 10 percent of them on Sumatra, and the rest on the nearby island of Borneo, which is divided largely between Indonesia and Malaysia. Their numbers have dropped dramatically as rain forests have been cleared and burned on both islands.
Logging drove much of the destruction in the last few decades and now palm oil plantations have emerged as the biggest threat. Indonesia is the world's top palm oil producer with some 15 million acres covered by plantations and is likely to grow amid an Indonesian policy that requires biofuels to account for 5 percent of the country's energy mix by 2025.
Along with biofuels, palm is used in everything from cosmetics to cooking oil.
The forests around Bukit Tigapuluh National Park are also home to 100 of the last 400 critically endangered Sumatran tigers left in the wild, said Dolly Priatna of Zoological Society of London, and roughly 50 endangered elephants.
The groups protesting the APP's plans — which include WARSI and the Sumatran Tiger Conservation and Protection Foundation — have written an official letter of complaint to the government.
Logging threat to Indonesia orangutans, tigers: report
Aloysius Bhui, Reuters 19 May 09;
JAKARTA (Reuters) - A logging operation planned by Asia's biggest pulp producer in Indonesia's Sumatra island threatens the habitat of rare orangutans, tigers and elephants, a joint report by five conservation groups said on Tuesday.
A license has been given to a joint venture between Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and the Sinar Mas Group to clear 50,000 hectares (123,600 acres) of forest near the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Jambi to supply a nearby pulp mill, according to the report.
Peter Pratje of the Frankfurt Zoological Society said the project would destroy the forest home of 100 orangutans successfully reintroduced into the wild.
"It took scientists decades to discover how to successfully reintroduce critically endangered orangutans from captivity into the wild. It could take APP just months to destroy an important part of their new habitat," he said.
Another conservationist said the plan would also devastate the habitat of critically endangered Sumatran tigers and increase conflict with humans.
"Tigers struggling to survive as Jambi's forests shrink have already killed nine people in the area this year," said Dolly Pratna of the Zoological Society of London.
The forests are home to an estimated 100 of the last 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, the report said.
Up to 60 endangered Sumatran elephants also used the forest area slated for clearing, the report said.
A Sinar Mas Group spokeswoman defended the plan and said the site was already earmarked for development and was not a protected forest.
"We think our presence is good to help prevent any illegal logging, and reduce trespassing of animals that could destroy crops of local farmers," said Joice Budisusanto, adding that the firm normally allocated around 30 to 40 percent of its forest concession for conservation purposes.
The five green groups -- the Sumatran Tiger Conservation and Protection Foundation, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Zoological Society of London, WWF-Indonesia and WARSI -- have sent a letter to the ministry of forestry asking it to protect the area.
Forestry ministry officials could not immediately be reached.
APP, which is part of Sinar Mas, has a combined pulp, paper and packaging capacity in Indonesia of more than 7 million tonnes, according to its web site.
Green groups have frequently accused APP of destroying natural forest in Indonesia, accusations denied by the firm.
Separately, the Center for Orangutan Protection said in a report this week that the 2002 construction of a road through the Kutai National Park in West Kalimantan had led to a 90 percent drop in orangutan numbers from an estimated 600 to between 30 to 60 in the area since 2004.
(Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia; Writing by Sunanda Creagh; Editing by Ed Davies and Sugita Katyal)
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