South Sumatra NGOs: APP fails to fully implement FPIC procedure

EoF News / 05 January 2015
(C) Eyes on the Forest

 

EoF News (PEKANBARU) – South Sumatra environmental organizations published their monitoring report on  “APP’s FPIC implementation on affected communities surrounding PT. OKI Pulp Mill” last month.

Wahana Bumi Hijau (WBH), Sarekat Hijau Indonesia, Yayasan Bakau, and JPIK South Sumatra conducted monitoring on new huge APP’s OKI pulp mill that is under construction in Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) district which based on Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) standard operating procedure.  

The groups said that “FPIC Team failed to fully implement APP’s FPIC SOP.” As quoted by Wahana Bumi Hijau website, the NGOs said concluded that “Participation in the FPIC process was limited; information provided was often inadequate and not given in writing; written consent from a majority of community members or groups potentially affected by the project was not obtained; permits for the Mill and construction of the Mill commenced before consent was given by at least some of the potentially affected communities with a clear right to FPIC (e.g. Sungai Rasau and Bukit Batu).

WBH said that WBH and APP have “made a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” that WBH will independently monitor the FPIC process and will be informed about the progress of FPIC, as well as possibly to attend to processes associated with respecting the right of communities to give or withhold their FPIC.

“Unfortunately, since then we have received no information from APP about its consultation or negotiation with affected communities, so we have had no opportunity to follow or contribute to the process.”

Find the Final Report on Monitoring APP FPIC process here and Bahasa version