SUSTAINING DEFORESTATION APRIL’s Links with PT Adindo Hutani Lestari Undercut “No Deforestation” Pledge

Based on analysis using satellite imagery, this report documents extensive deforestation, including clearance of forests on peatlands,

in the concession area of PT Adindo Hutani Lestari (Adindo), one of APRIL’s top five wood suppliers, during the period June 3, 2015 – August 31, 2020. These findings represent significant violations of both APRIL’s and RGE Group’s commitments to stop new development on forested peatlands – and more broadly, they challenge

the integrity of the groups’ “no deforestation” pledge.

 

Deforestation was detected on 7,291 hectares (ha) of land (equivalent to 10,000 football pitches) during a period in which Adindo delivered over 2 million cubic meters of wood (nearly 80,000 truckloads) to APRIL’s pulp mill in Sumatra. The wood Adindo delivered to APRIL was reportedly all plantation-grown species. Yet APRIL’s stated policy is to not accept wood from a supplier that “has knowingly cleared [High Conservation Value] HCV or [High Carbon Stock] HCS forests or forested peatlands”. Over half of the area deforested (3,769 ha) was

within areas determined to have High Conservation Value in a 2014 assessment by Tropenbos International, and apparently no HCS assessment has been shared publicly