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.

Pekanbaru, March 1, 2024 - Jikalahari published a release highlighting the indications of deforestation and clearing of natural forests carried out by Asia Pulp & Paper / Sinar Mas group through its subsidiaries, namely PT Arara Abadi and PT Riau Indo Agropalma, in Indragiri Hilir, Riau.

PEKANBARU – Koalisi Eyes on the Forest mengapresiasi tindakan cepat Balai Besar Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam kantor Riau dalam menangani kematian gajah sumatera (maximus elephas sumatranus) di konsesi Hutan Tanaman Industri (HTI) dan mulai melakukan penyidikan kematian yang belum diketahui motifnya.

Silih berganti perusahaan pembakar hutan dan lahan disidang di pengadilan. Pekan ini, terdakwa PT Adei Plantation, Direktur Goh Keng EE, kembali menjalani sidang lanjutan yang digelar di Pengadilan Negeri Pelalawan Selasa (21/7), terkait dakwaan pembakaran pada September 2019.

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.

Di tengah perjuangan menghadapi pandemic virus corona, Indonesia khususnya Sumatera dan Kalimantan juga dihadapkan dengan ancaman kebakaran hutan dan lahan (karhutla). 29 Juni 2020, titik api muncul di Riau. Kekuatiran akan bergabungnya bencana karhutla bersama dengan pandemi penyakit virus corona-19 (covid-19) semakin membuncah.

Jakarta, 4 June 2020 - The National Coalition to Preserve Natural Resources (GN-PSDA) has called on the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry to stop ignoring the environmental and criminal destruction caused by Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), one of the world’s largest paper producers. (1)

Civil Society Open Letter About APP’s Recurrent Violation of Farmers’ Land Rights in Jambi, Indonesia Dear Madam/Sir, We are contacting you about the destruction of community food resources in the village of Lubuk Mandarsah, Tebo Regency, Jambi Province, Indonesia, perpetrated by PT. Wira Karya Sakti (WKS). WKS is an industrial pulpwood producer affiliated with Asia Pulp and Paper Sinar Mas (APP Sinar Mas), one of Indonesian main pulp companies. On the morning of 4 March 2020, a drone sprayed poison on the community’s rubber trees, vegetables, and palm trees. This is the way PT Wirakarya Sakti resolved its conflict with the local community: by jeopardising the safety of their food and livelihood in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis.

Video amatir diunggah di satu akun Facebook menampilkan seekor harimau berada di kawasan HTI milik PT Arara Abadi. Harimau besar itu berjalan mendekati pekerja perusahaan yang sedang panen akasia.

Riau province is raged by forest and land fires where EoF analyzed based on NASA Firms Eosdis Data that total 426 fires hostspots detected during June 2015.

Fires hotspots still haunt Riau province as in recent week there were 114 fire hotspots that analyzed by Eyes on the Forest based on NASA Firms EOSDIS Data, and Bengkalis district still the area mostly suffered by fires with 62 hotspots.

Eyes on the Forest analyzed that 290 fires hotspots accumulatively detected in period of 11 January - 11 February 2015 where Bengkalis district has got 160 of it, the most among the district in Riau Province.

As the man-made catastrophe of forest fire and haze returns to Riau, citizens of Pelalawan have to leave their homes and be on the alert to prevent fire coming to their remaining land, while some students fainted as schools closed in the district and the province’s capital city.

Police have saved eight children working for main supplier of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) in Pulau Muda, Pelalawan district, and nabbed a contractor recruiting the children from North Sumatra province, media report said.

In attempt to mitigate the corporates’ forest crimes, some activists demand Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to immediately seize the company assets of the listed names alleged for corporate crimes involvement.

An independent monitoring on legal wood certification in Riau province urged the government and certification agencies to be responsible for passing Timber Legality of Assurance System (TLAS) certificates to forest management units as some of timber companies targeted by anti-corruption commission for further probe on graft scandals.

Deforestation that conducted by Asia Pulp & Paper affiliated companies continue to indirectly cause suffering to people and wildlife as a fresh human-tiger conflict occurred in APP’s concession last week.

Asia Pulp and Paper is still clearcutting tropical rainforest as realities found by Eyes on the Forest investigation in the company’s subsidiary, PT Arara Abadi of district Nilo, in Tesso Nilo forest block, Sumatra’s Riau Province.

PEKANBARU (EoF News)—Following the death of an exhausted Sumatran tiger in a concession of Asia Pulp & Paper affiliated company in Pelalawan District, Riau, in August, fresh human-tiger conflict broke out in another concession of the group recently.

PEKANBARU (EoF News)— The State Finance Audit Agency (BPK) vowed to quest the companies and officials who allowed deforestation illegally as the Minister of Forestry had terminated mining operation on peat forest by PT Arara Abadi, an Asia Pulp and Paper (APP)’s/Sinar Mas Group associated company in Riau province, thanked to the agency’s report.

PEKANBARU (EoF News)-- At least seven Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) were killed within recent two months in Riau province which believed as the severest conflict erupted this year as all of them were poisoned.

PEKANBARU (EoF News)-- Villagers in human-tiger conflict area complained that timber companies drive threat of human-tiger conflict to residents following several incidents occurred in Kerumutan forest block.

The police helped by the company’s security guards and paramilitary groups evicted villagers who accused of occupying PT Arara Abadi plantation area by using two helicopters and guns with rubber bullet, media reported last week. Arara Abadi is a main supplier of fiber for Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) mill in Riau.

PEKANBARU (EoF News)— Siak District Administration has reportedly warned an Asia Pulp & Paper affiliated company, PT Arara Abadi, who built canals in Kampar Peninsula forest block as it is allegedly against the Environment Law, a daily newspaper reported Tuesday (20/5/2008).

Pekanbaru (EoF News)—National human rights commission has found alleged human rights abuse committed by PT Arara Abadi, main pulpwood supplier for Asia Pulp & Paper in Riau, against communities in Riau as the body visited four villages in separate districts last week, media reports said.

The destruction of high biodiversity forest in Sumatra’s Bukit Tigapuluh landscape – including the extinction of the endangered Sumatran tiger, elephant, and orangutan- is now in front of our eyes.

Pekanbaru (EoF News)-- The Riau Police Office has reportedly submitted a request to the President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to summon Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban as the witness over issuance of 17 licenses of Selective Logging Concession in the province, a newspaper said.

Pekanbaru (EoF News)--- Three directors of PT Arara Abadi, subsidiary of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), were named suspects by the Riau Police Office over illegal logging practices causing the loss of natural forests in Riau. In another case, two former Riau Forestry Service's heads also named suspects for allegedly issuing unlawful logging licenses and other fake documents.

Pekanbaru (EoF News) – Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of three environmental NGOs in Riau, Sumatra releases its Investigative Report March/April/June 2007 today. The EoF Investigation found Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) to be involved in forest clearance operations in some concessions in Giam Siak Kecil, Kampar Peninsula, and Senepis forest blocks.

Pekanbaru (EoF News) – Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of three environmental NGOs in Riau, Sumatra releases its Investigative Report February 2007 today. The EoF Investigation found Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) to be involved in forest clearance operations in a concession in Kerumutan forest block, as it continued the report of November 2006 edition.

Pekanbaru (EoF News)-- Environmentalists in Riau urged the provincial police to immediately probe the illegal logging allegedly committed by Asia Pulp & Paper's subsidiary, PT Arara Abadi, in Kampar Peninsula as found by Eyes on the Forest coalition's investigative report published this month.

Pekanbaru (EoF News) – Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of three environmental NGOs in Riau, Sumatra releases its Investigative Report December 2006 today. The EoF Investigation found Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) involved in illegal logging in a concession belonging to its competitor in Kampar Peninsula forest block. APP’s partner, PT Arara Abadi, has illegally clearcut over 4,500 hectare-natural forest on overlapping concession of PT Triomas FDI. APP’s response on EoF’s Investigation Report December 2006 showed the implicit APP acknowledgment that its associate company/partner (PT Arara Abadi) conducted illegal logging in natural forest of Kampar Peninsula.

Pekanbaru (EoF News)-- At least 500 villagers representing some traditional villages of Rimbamelintang sub-district in Rokan Hilir district, filed a petition rejecting logging expansion that conducted by PT Ruas Utama Jaya, associated to Asia Pulp & Paper (APP).

Pekanbaru (EoF News)--- A hearing between district legislative council (DPRD) of Kampar and PT Arara Abadi, a forestry company associated to Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) last week disclosed that the subsidiary are sued by community for 16 land dispute cases covering 20,000 hectares totally in the province.

(Pekanbaru, EoF News) – Riau provincial legislative council (DPRD Riau) pledged to forward complaint filed by villagers of Pinggir sub-district of Bengkalis over alleged land seizure committed by PT Arara Abadi, a plantation timber company belongs to Asia Pulp & Paper (APP).