EoF News (PEKANBARU) – Today, 10 months after APRIL published its Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) and established a “Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC)” to “ensure transparency and implementation of this SFMP”, EoF submitted its grievance report on APRIL’s flawed SFMP implementation in Pulau Padang to the SAC.
In the grievance report, EoF concludes that almost all of the natural forest clearance by PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP) in Pulau Padang is in breach of one or more government regulations and thus in violation of the SFMP, specifically, its commitment “IV.a. APRIL reaffirms its commitment to comply with all prevailing laws and regulations, and requires all its fibre suppliers to do so”.
The environmental coalition also concludes that all natural forest clearance by PT. RAPP in the fully peat covered Pulau Padang before and after 28 January 2014 was in violation of APRIL’s 2005 HCV protection policy as well as its 2014 SFMP. APRIL’s SFMP commitments violated include:
EoF investigation also finds that social conflict continues in Pulau Padang despite an SFMP commitment “V.b. APRIL commits to resolve any outstanding community conflicts in a fair and transparent manner with input and feedback from stakeholders”.
Muslim Rasyid of the coalition asked SAC to request APRIL an immediate full stop to all forest clearance and peat drainage operations in all concessions until all HCV assessments have been independently verified by the HCV Resource Network as committed in the APRIL SFMP.