News (58)

/ EoF News

Menampung bahan baku dari hutan alam, APP terus langgar komitmen keberlanjutannya

Pekanbaru, 1 Maret 2024 - Jikalahari menerbitkan rilis yang menyoroti indikasi deforestasi dan penebangan hutan alam yang dilakukan oleh Asia Pulp & Paper / Sinar Mas group melalui anak perusahaannya yakni PT Arara Abadi dan PT Riau Indo Agropalma pada Februari 2024 di Indragiri Hilir, Riau.

/ EoF Press Release

NGO Ingatkan KLHK Tidak Bisa Sendiri Selesaikan TNTN

Persoalan perambahan sawit dalam kawasan hutan dan konservasi seperti yang terjadi di Taman Nasional Tesso Nilo (TNTN), sudah menjadi persoalan menahun. Masalah pada kawasan yang menjadi rumah bagi flora dan fauna endemik Indonesia di Pulau Sumatera ini di antaranya pembalakan liar, penguasaan sepihak yang berakibat munculnya konflik, karhutla, alih fungsi lahan, dan masalah lingkungan lainnya, jauh sebelum diresmikan sebagai Taman Nasional pada 19 Juli 2004.

/ EoF Press Release

Eyes on the Forest: Companies should take immediate actions to stop sourcing from illegal oil palm plantations and start paying for the past damages

PEKANBARU, INDONESIA, 3 JUNE 2021 -- A new report published by the Eyes on the Forest (EoF) coalition today reveals that only 14% (0.8 million ha) of oil palm plantations in Indonesia’s top palm oil producing province, Riau, can be considered legal. EoF advises buyers that the remaining 86% of Riau’s oil palm plantations must be considered illegal until detailed field verification has proven otherwise.

/ EoF Press Release

APRIL’s 2.6 million-ton production capacity expansion is rampant; betrays its sustainability commitment, harms environment and community

Pekanbaru, 1 May 2021--Eyes on the Forest (EoF) coalition condemns environmental permit granted to Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) group to expand pulp production capacity of Riau Complex PT RAPP and urged the Government for banning natural forest clearing by the company in their attempt to obtain mixed tropical hardwood (MTH) for their operation.

/ EoF News

Putusan bebas manajer Duta Palma diprotes aktivis lingkungan

Rabu (9/9), Majelis Hakim Pengadilan Tindak Pidana Korupsi (PN Tipikor) Pekanbaru, memberikan vonis bebas kepada Legal Manager PT Duta Palma, Suheri Tirta, yang sebelumnya dituntut jaksa 4 tahun penjara dalam perkara suap alih fungsi hutan di Provinsi Riau.

/ EoF News

Jikalahari: APRIL’s PT RAPP drains protected peat in Siak

In July 2020, Jikalahari NGOs network was informed by locals of Desa Dayun, Siak District, that Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) supplier, PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP) sector Pelalawan, drained peat canal, conducted land clearing and replant Acacia mangium in the formerly burned area of 2015 and 2019 forest fires.

/ EoF News

APRIL dituding memanfaatkan masa Pandemi, berencana menebangi hutan

Mewabahnya virus Covid-19 ternyata tidak menyurutkan aktivitas penebangan hutan secara ilegal. Juni 2020, temuan Jikalahari di Desa Pulau Padang, Kabupaten Kuantan Singingi, mengindikasikan adanya rencana penebangan hutan alam seluas 1.565 hektar yang akan dilakukan oleh PT Nusa Prima Manunggal (NPM), anak perusahaan Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL).

/ EoF News

Jikalahari: Arara Abadi sengaja membakar lahannya

Kebakaran lahan PT Arara Abadi di Desa Merbau, Kabupaten Pelalawan yang terjadi pekan lalu menyita kemarahan pembela lingkungan hidup. PT Arara Abadi, pemasok bahan baku untuk Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), diduga sengaja melakukan pembakaran lahan seluas 83 hektar untuk ditanami kembali dengan akasia.

/ EoF Press Release

Aparat Hukum, Usut Tuntas Pengrusakan Sekat Kanal oleh PT Surya Dumai Agrindo di Desa Buruk Bakul

PEKANBARU, 21 APRIL 2018 — Koalisi Masyarakat Sipil Penyelamat Gambut Riau (Jikalahari, WWF Indonesia, Walhi Riau dan Yayasan Mitra Insani) mendesak aparat hukum mengusut tuntas pengrusakan tiga buah sekat kanal yang dilakukan oleh PT Surya Dumai Agrindo di Desa Buruk Bakul, Kecamatan Bukit Batu, Kabupaten Bengkalis.

/ EoF News

30 NGOs urge buyers, banks not to support APRIL

Thirty Indonesian NGOs and coalitions have sent a letter to 20 banks in China and Europe last week in responding to “the current situation of PT RAPP cancellation, continuing PT RAPP (APRIL main supplier) poor adherence to Indonesia regulation regarding peat protection and management,” Jikalahari said on his website.

/ EoF Press Release

APRIL abaikan komitmen Presiden Jokowi terhadap perlindungan gambut dan penanggulangan kebakaran hutan

Pemerintahan Joko Widodo telah berkomitmen untuk mengurangi emisi gas rumah kaca, salah satunya melalui perlindungan lahan gambut sebagai upaya mencegah kebakaran hutan secara masif berulang. Namun, tampaknya hal ini tidak diindahkan oleh Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) melalui PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP).

/ EoF News

Lobi industri cabut gugatan UU Lingkungan, komitmen kelestarian pebisnis diragukan

Dua lobi industri sektor kehutanan dan perkebunan mencabut uji materi Undang-Undang Nomor 32/2009 tentang Perlindungan dan Pengelolaan Lingkungan Hidup di Mahkamah Konstitusi (MK), sebuah langkah yang tetap menyisakan keraguan publik terhadap komitmen kelestarian oleh perusahaan.

/ EoF Press Release

EoF: Sinar Mas/APP’s denial misleading, they source of haze since ten years ago

Sinar Mas Group (SMG) and Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) last week denied publicly that their companies are involved in ongoing forest and land fires. Eyes on the Forest coalition said that media stunt by the giant company is ridiculous and hard to trust.

/ EoF News

NGOs question APRIL’s policy implementation as APRIL’s breach of deforestation moratorium proven

APRIL published an audit report by its consultant Hatfield which confirmed an Eyes on the Forest report that APRIL’s wood supplier, PT. Adindo Hutani Lestari (AHL) in North Kalimantan, had breached APRIL’s forest and peatland clearance moratorium starting 15 May 2015.

/ EoF Press Release

Not only on paper, sustainable commitment needs evidence on the ground

Commitment on Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) 2.0 that recently launched by Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) on 3 June 2015 is not a blank cheque nor a public relation stunt as usual to business world and public in whole.

/ EoF News

APRIL found clearing natural forest in green belt, supplying natural woods to pulp mill

PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP), major concession of Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), was found clearing natural forest in its concession of district/sector Ukui, Tesso Nilo landscape, Riau province.

/ EoF News

APRIL still clears forest in Pulau Padang’s concession

Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) likely broke its promise not to clear natural forest despite it has pledged not to do so in its sustainable forest management policy, a satellite images analysis detected.

/ EoF News

NGOs condemns APP/SMG for brutal murder by their security of a local farmer

Indra Pelani (23) of Lubuk Mandarsah was killed by security guards hired by APP’s sister company PT. Wirakarya Sakti (WKS) in Bukit Tigapuluh landscape, Jambi Province, Sumatra. The village has been in conflict with WKS for a long time over their land tenure for 3,000 ha.

/ EoF Press Release

APRIL’s policy anniversary without real gain, NGOs say

On the first anniversary of APRIL’s “Sustainable Forest Management Policy”, Eyes on the Forest, Gapeta Borneo and RPHK call on APRIL to stop natural forest clearance and peat canal development immediately.

/ EoF News

Jikalahari reveals “new alleged violation” by APP's supplier

A local environmental organization accused Asia Pulp & Paper (APP/Sinar Mas) breached its Forest Conservation Policy and forestry law following a new finding on its pulpwood supplier’s concession that found operating excavator draining peat canal and construct road.

/ EoF News

NGOs coalition lodges corruption cases against 27 pulp suppliers

A coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations lodged corruption cases involving 27 forestry companies in Riau to anti-corruption commission (KPK) in Jakarta Tuesday, media reports said.

/ EoF News

APRIL violates its new sustainability policy, say Kalimantan NGOs

Three green groups working in Kalimantan launched an investigative report this week depicting deep peat forest clearance by a timber supplier of Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), PT Adindo Hutani Lestari (AHL), in Sesayap sector, North Kalimantan province.

/ EoF News

Minister indicates 23 companies allegedly Involved in Riau fires

Field investigator team set up by Ministry of Environment (MoE) found strong evidences of the involvement of 23 plantations and industrial timber plantation (HTI) companies of a total of 43 firms investigated in forest and land fires case which had caused severe haze in the beginning of this year, media reported.

/ EoF Press Release

Doubts on APRIL’s sustainability commitment escalate as high conservation value forest cleared

Eyes on the Forest coalition publishes latest investigative report as a consistency in monitoring deforestation in Sumatra, Riau in particular, as this edition highlights natural forest clearing in high conservation value forest (HCVF) by PT Triomas Forestry Development Indonesia, a supplier to Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL).

/ EoF News

Instead of protecting, authorities involved in forest encroachment

Joint military operation in Giam Siak Kecil (GSK) Biosphere Reserve, Bukit Batu, Bengkalis Riau, in late last month revealed the involvement of two former police chiefs, a high-ranking TNI-AU (air force), as well as a number of police and military service members and government officials on the encroachement of the internationally recognized protected area. The area is always burnt annually then converted to plantations, media reported.

/ EoF News

APRIL supplier tried for environmental damage loss

A civil code trial on alleged pollution and environmental damage that involved one supplier of Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) belonging to tycoon Sukanto Tanoto’s Royal Golden Eagle group took place at the Pekanbaru Court in January, media reported.

/ EoF Press Release

APRIL’s trick to steal natural forest in A HCV Forest until 2019 through Sustainable Forest Management Policy

Jikalahari and Walhi (Friends of the Earth) Riau suspect the launch of Sustainable Forest Management Policy by APRIL today (Tuesday, 28 January 2014) in Jakarta, as a trick to destroy the remaining natural forest embedded with their illegal and problematic permits in Riau province.

/ EoF News

Jikalahari doubts pulp giant’s green commitment

Riau Forest Rescue Network (Jikalahari) reveals massive deforestation by industrial plantation companies during 2013 that also includes the green group’s doubts on paper giant company’s commitment to save Riau’s natural forest and peatlands seriously.

/ EoF News

The impacts of climate change in Riau: a lawsuit to the President of RI

As their villages are affected by the climate change, eight suburbans of Pelalawan district and Rohil along with Forest Rescue Network Riau (Jikalahari) and Indonesia Centre of Environmental Law (ICEL) officially lay their protest toward the President of RI, Minister of Forestry, Minister of the Environment and Riau Governor at the State Court of Central Jakarta today which is located at Gajah Mada street No 17, Central Jakarta.

/ EoF News

APRIL’s deforestation continues as its restoration program launched

Despite a restoration program organized by a company affiliated to pulp giant in Kampar Peninsula, Riau province, launched and endorsed by the Ministry of Forestry, environmentalists criticized it as a manuoevre by wo-faced company which merely seek benefit from credit carbon scheme.

/ EoF News

Indonesian NGOs call for improvement of APP’s Forest Conservation Policy

At least eleven social and environmental civil society groups and networks sent a joint letter to Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) on 24 April 2013, explaining the substantial social and conservation issues APP has failed to address adequately in its Forest Conservation Policy and associated documents.

/ EoF Press Release

APRIL, Sumatra’s largest pulper of natural forest tangled over legality, social conflicts

Despite promising to its customers that they would only use plantation fiber to feed its pulp mill by 2009. Wood supply to global pulp giant Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), has resulted natural forest loss double the size of Singapore, in Riau Province since that deadline.

/ EoF News

60 NGOs send letters to bank, financial institutions

At least sixty environmental and social non-governmental organizations sent joint letters to banks and financial institutions not to invest in increasing pulp mill capacity of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) or other companies associated with Sinar Mas Group until “reforms have been achieved,” a press release issued last week said.

/ EoF News

APRIL concessions protested by communities, one dies at APP site

Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) timber suppliers are protested by communities in several pulpwood concessions in Riau Province, Sumatra, early this month, over long-standing conflicts between villagers and companies.

/ EoF News

Jikalahari denounces district head for preference on village forest

Non governmental organizations and civil society group network to rescue natural forest in Riau, Jikalahari, denounced Pelalawan District Head for ignoring community’s proposal to manage communal forest in Kampar Peninsula and critized his favoritism to pulp giant’s “greenwashing” project.

/ EoF Press Release

Google mapping tool shows impacts of deforestation on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island

A powerful new mapping tool from Indonesian NGO coalition Eyes on the Forest and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) allows the public to visualize Sumatra’s forests and wildlife such as rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutan, providing vital information in the race to protect forests, save some of the world’s most important biodiversity and help local communities.

/ EoF Press Release

APP’s double default on creditors, WWF says

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has been accused of a “double default” on international creditors, after an investigation revealed that the company has decimated tropical forests it promised to conserve under “legally binding” debt restructuring agreements.

/ EoF News

NGOs blast APRIL for violence

Civil society groups in Riau Province condemned violence shown by PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP), a subsidiary and timber supplier of Asian Pacific Resource International Limited (APRIL) who violently dispersed Gunung Sahilan community’s land dispute protest on 6 March by hitting motorbikes and assaulted the locals.

/ EoF News

Jikalahari demands President SBY to reopen logging cases

PEKANBARU (EoF News)—Jikalahari, environmental organization’s network to save natural forest in Riau, sent a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last week to order the police and prosecutors office to prosecute 14 timber companies which allegedly committing environmental destruction.

/ EoF Press Release

NGOs and Riau community leaders demand an independent investigation over alleged human rights abuses in bloody Pucuk Rantau incident

Walhi Riau, Scale Up, JIKALAHARI, Greenpeace and Forum Komunikasi Pemuka Masyarakat Riau (FKPMR/Riau Community Leaders Forum) ) paid condolences and strongly denounced the violent incident claiming one casualty and another one was hospitalized with heavy wounded in Kenegerian Pucuk Rantau village, Kuantan Singingi district, Riau province on Tuesday.

/ EoF Press Release

Jikalahari, Greenpeace send open letter to APRIL

International consultants Tropenbos will facilitate a public consultation for a High Conservation Value (HCV) assessment for the APRIL pulp and paper operations in the Kampar Peninsula, Riau, Sumatra. This follows a similar consultation in Riau in February that was not attended by Riau based NGOs. For the same - and following - reasons, Greenpeace will not participate in this public consultation.

/ EoF Press Release

Stop issuing permits for APRIL

Civil society organizations in Riau Province: Jikalahari, Walhi Riau, Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Riau, Transparansi Internasional Indonesia (TII), Kantor Bantuan Hukum (KBH) Riau and Hakiki urge the Government of Indonesia to revoke concession license of PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP) in Kampar Peninsula due to it threatens unique ecosystem in the world.

/ EoF News

House commission to meet police on cases closure

PEKANBARU (EoF News)— House of Representatives’ Commission III members visiting Riau Province today to verify for motive behind closure of huge illegal logging cases by the Riau Police in December last year. Tribun Pekanbaru daily reported today (06/02/2009) that at least 13 parliamentarians from Commission III handling legal issues would meet new chief of Riau Police Brig.- Gen. Adjie Rustam Ramdja here.

/ EoF News

Minister blames District Head, Jikalahari urges law enforcement

PEKANBARU (EoF News)—Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban blamed detained Pelalawan District Head Azmun Jaafar over allegedly issuing 15 logging licenses to companies and insisted his decision to grant verification for pulp and paper companies in Riau, media reported yesterday (8/4/2008).

/ EoF Press Release

Stop conversion in Kampar Peninsula as it incites climate change

Riau NGOs Network for Forest Rescue (Jikalahari), University of Riau and representatives of 3 sub-districts in Kampar Peninsula today call for a halt to conversion of peatland-rich forests in the region to avoid escalating carbon (CO2) release.

/ EoF Press Release

Stop converting peatlands

Several NGOs are calling on the Government to stop granting concessions for conversion and land clearing on peatlands, citing data that shows the major factor inciting this year's forest fires is forest conversion, mainly on peat soil sites.

/ EoF Press Release

WWF, Walhi, Jikalahari: “Logging Moratorium for Companies with Questionable Industrial Timber Plantation Licenses”

Today Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of Sumatran environmental NGOs, called on all companies who are clearcutting natural forests based on Industrial Timber Plantation Licenses (IUPHHK-HT) issued by Governors or Heads of Districts to immediately issue a moratorium on all such operations.

Reports (8)