Palembang, August 23, 2021 -- Over 30 civil society organizations on Monday sent a letter to investors of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), part of the Sinar Mas Group, explaining why the expansion of APP’s OKI Pulp and Paper Mill in Sumatra, Indonesia would risk the respiratory health for millions of people in Southeast Asia and cause more greenhouse gas emissions than many countries on an annual basis.

10 tahun lalu, tepatnya 3 Desember 2010, Eyes on the Forest merilis sebuah laporan yang menyingkap bagaimana dua perusahaan raksasa pulp dan kertas – Asia Pulp & Paper milik Sinar Mas Group (SMG / APP) yang berkantor pusat di Shanghai/Cina dan Asian Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL) milik Raja Garuda Mas Grup yang berkantor pusat di Singapura – terus mengkonversi hutan alam dan gambut dalam di propinsi Riau.

KOALISI ANTI MAFIA HUTAN PRESS STATEMENT: KPMG “ASSURANCE REPORTS” CALLED INTO QUESTION BY NEW FINDINGS -- A coalition of civil society organizations on Tuesday published a report about deforestation and peatlands degradation on the rainforest-rich island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Based on analysis using satellite imagery, the report documents significant deforestation, including clearance of forests on peatlands, in the concession area of PT Adindo Hutani Lestari (Adindo), one of global pulp and paper producer APRIL Group’s largest suppliers of wood to its pulp mill in Indonesia.

Koalisi Anti Mafia Hutan hari Selasa menerbitkan laporan terbaru "Membabat Hutan Tanpa Henti: Hubungan dengan Adindo Hutani Lestari Menciderai Komitmen Tanpa Deforestasi APRIL Grup." Laporan ini menyorot deforestasi dan degradasi lahan gambut di konsesi PT Adindo Hutani Lestari, Kalimantan Utara. Dan keterkaitannya dengan APRIL Grup atau grup induknya Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) Grup, salah satu penghasil pulp, kertas, dan viscose terbesar di Dunia.

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.

Thousands of schools were shut in Sumatra this week due to worsening haze from forest and land burnings as fire hotspots were detected in concession and non-concession areas, media reports said.

Severe fires 2015 does not change anybody’s behaviour. Eyes on the Forest (EoF) coalition’s investigation found three of seven industrial timber plantation companies – that has been named in previous cases as suspects to forest and land fires case in 2013-2014— are once again apparently breaching protection and restoration regulations. Is this caused by poor supervision and coordination by the Government?

EoF analysed that fire hotspots that NASA Fire VIIRS satellite detected more in Riau province either in peatland or mineral soil as 179 hotspots found in industrial timber plantations (HTI) concessions alone.

Asia Pulp & Paper’s $3 billion mill locks in high carbon emissions and fire threat for decades. NGOs call on company to stop using drained peatlands for pulpwood plantations and to restore degraded areas.

APRIL stopped Government investigation of legally questionable new peat drainage in Sumatra

APRIL menghalangi investigasi Pemerintah terkait kegiatan pembukaan lahan gambut baru di Sumatera. --Siaran Pers EoF

PT. Bumi Mekar Hijau, an APP timber supplier in South Sumatra, was cleared by panel of judges in Palembang district court last week from a lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry

A new report by Deltares commissioned by Wetlands International conclude that plantations in Kampar Peninsula, Riau province, are not sustainable and economically unviable due to subsidence, drainage and flood problems.

Eyes on the Forest commended the Ministry of Environment and Forestry for issuing a letter and instructions regarding peat management for the prevention and control of fire.

Fires in Indonesia continues unabated. An early estimate by the Indonesian government of the haze crisis cost this year was as high as 465 trillion rupiah (US$34 billion).

Eyes on the Forest (EoF) supports Riau police to name 16 out of 18 timber plantation suppliers and palm oil plantations suspects of forest and land burning in 2015.

EoF News (PEKANBARU)— Eyes on the Forest published NASA’s FIRMS MODIS fire hotspots data and satellite images on its interactive map to allow easy monitoring of current and past fires in Sumatran concessions of the Sinar Mas Group/Asia Pulp & Paper and others.

Eyes on the Forest today published a new animation it produced using MODIS True Color Terra images since 17 August 2015. The animation shows smokes coming out of Asia Pulp & Paper's own PT. Rimba Hutani Mas concession in South Sumatra.

Eyes on the Forest found two Landsat images showing fires in and around concessions of four Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) suppliers in peat areas in Jambi and South Sumatra provinces and heavy smokes from them.

Indonesia Police Headquarters named PT BMH as a suspect of forest fires in South Sumatra and it is the second time the timber supplier of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) convicted to the crime following its legal status in February last year.

President Joko Widodo called stern measures against companies involved in forest and land fires burning by rescinding their licenses, media report said today.

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.

Eyes on the Forest says APRIL unable to provide evidence that PT Adindo Hutani Lestari (AHL) in North Kalimantan, an APRIL timber supplier, did not clear natural forest after 15 May, the day when APRIL pledged to halt its forest clearing in its modified Sustainable Forest Management Policy. EoF had reported this moratorium violation on 22 June.

NGOs in West Kalimantan analyzed that 217 fires hotspots detected by NASA Firms Eosdis during 28 June – 6 July 2015. 124 out of 217 hotspots or 57 percent was found in palm oil concessions and by districts, Kubu Raya is the most area hit by fires with 81 and followed by Ketapang and Sambas with 44 and 36 respectively.

A supplier of Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) in North Kalimantan cleared natural forest on peatland in violation of APRIL’s recently launched 2nd version of the Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP).

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.

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.

At least 163 fire hotspots detected in Riau between 1-5 March 2015 as NASA FIRMS Eosdis Data that analyzed by Eyes on the Forest this week.

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.

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.

The President of Indonesia Joko Widodo, accompanied by the Minister of Forestry and Environment Siti Nurbaya, came to Riau province last week to monitor the burned forest areas that caused haze in Sungai Tohor village, Meranti Islands District, media reported.

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.

Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) allegedly violated its self-declared Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) commitment as it continued natural forest clearance in Bagan Melibur village of Padang Island, Riau province, an environmental group said.

Giant pulp and paper company, Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd (APRIL), prepared a new restoration project to work on the heavily degraded peatlands in Kampar Peninsula, Riau province, Sumatra. Last month Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) banned the company to associate the giant’s products with the certification agency.

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.

Fires hotspots likely got its peak this month on Tuesday (27 August) seeing the 5th largest number of hotspots (758) recorded since 1 June this year, as 26% of that found inside the Tesso Nilo complex.

Following last week’s announcement by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) to stop clearing Indonesian forests and peatlands, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) urged Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) to “change their unsustainable business model” immediately.

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) claims of independent sustainability certification for its operations aren’t supported by the certification schemes and assessors it has nominated, a WWF survey has found.

The Indonesian Minister of Forestry suspended temporarily logging operation held by Asian Pacific Resources International Limited’s (APRIL’s) PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) Tuesday in a concession situated in outer island Pulau Padang, Riau province.

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.

PEKANBARU (EoF News)— Communities from 23 villages inhabiting Riau peatland declared a forum called Riau Peatland Community Network (Jaringan Masyarakat Gambut Riau) following a congress that facilitated by several Riau environmental groups this week.

PEKANBARU (EoF News)—Eyes on the Forest coalition today published an Investigative Report on PT Lestari Unggul Makmur (LUM), a pulpwood plantation company associated to Asian Pacific Resources International Holding Limited (APRIL).

WALHI (Friends of Earth Indonesia) Riau releases Investigative Report on natural forest clearing by PT Sumatera Riang Lestari, an associated company to APRIL in Pulau Rangsang, Kepulauan Meranti district of Riau province, Sumatra

PEKANBARU (EoF News)-- Where the Forest Ends, a radio show aired by Living on Earth (LoE) program of Public Radio International in week of 11 December 2009. The story highlighted deforestation occurred in peat swamp forest Kerumutan and Kampar Peninsula, Riau Province, where communities land taken over by forestry companies. Human and Sumatran tiger conflict escalates due to shrinkage of natural forest in the province.

Satellite data for the first six months of 2009 show that Riau Province had the largest number of fire “hotspots” in Indonesia: 4,782. And nearly one-quarter of the Riau fires happened within concessions affiliated with Sinar Mas Group’s Asia Pulp & Paper company.

PEKANBARU (EoF News)-- Firefighters desperately struggled to extinguish forest and land fires in Riau Province as residents suffered upper respiratory problems due to worsening quality of air, while airport administrators delayed flights, media reports said.

Most violent incidents between people and tigers in Sumatra’s Riau Province in the past 12 years have occurred near forested areas being cleared by paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and associated companies, under the umbrella of its holding group, Sinar Mas Group (SMG), according to an analysis of human-tiger conflict data.

The Jakarta Post, 19 February 2009 -- The environment minister has approved the conversion of peatlands to oil palm plantations, if an environmental impact analysis (Amdal) is done.

PEKANBARU (EoF News)— Majority of forest and land fires in Riau Province recently detected by satellite from 17 January to 28 January 2009 occurred in peatlands where hotspots found in several concessions of pulpwood plantations (HTI) and palm oil. Protected Area (Kawasan Lindung) and proposed expansion of Tesso Nilo National Park were also raged by fires, Eyes on the Forest analyzed.

The Indonesian province of Riau has pledged to halt the destruction of its forests and peatlands; a move that will prevent billions of tonnes of carbon from entering the atmosphere.

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.

A Greenpeace team of investigators has discovered widespread destruction of Sumatra's ancient forests, caused by fires which are threatening to burn out of control.

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.