25
Mar 2008 - Pekanbaru, INDONESIA – One of
the world’s biggest carbon stores and a
key tiger habitat are threatened by a new
logging road in Riau Province, Sumatra,
according to a new investigative report
published today.
An absence of permits
and other irregularities suggest that the
new road cutting into Kampar peninsula is
likely to be illegal, says Riau’s Eyes on
the Forest group, a coalition of local NGO
network Jikalahari, Walhi Riau, and WWF-Indonesia.
The road, like another
exposed in January threatening indigenous
peoples, elephants, orangutans and tigers
in Sumatra’s Bukit Tigapuluh forest landscape,
has been constructed by companies linked
to controversial conglomerate Asia Pulp
and Paper (APP).
“It is morally reprehensible
for one of the world’s largest paper companies
to so brazenly ignore Indonesian laws and
destroy the natural resources that belong
to the people of Riau,” said Teguh Surya
of Walhi Riau.
“We strongly urge APP
to join the ranks of responsible businesses
and conduct its operations within the law.
Until that time, the world’s paper buyers
and investors should stop doing business
with APP.”
Kampar peninsula can
be considered a single hydro-ecological
system, consisting entirely of a single
dome of peat at depths mostly over 10 meters
– extremely deep for a peatland, with an
enormous store of carbon.
Drainage and plantation
development activities on the top of the
Kampar peat dome could cause the dome to
collapse and emit large amounts of carbon,
according to Eyes on the Forest.
Last month, a report
by WWF, Remote Sensing Solution GmbH and
Hokkaido University found that deforestation,
peat decomposition and forest fires in Riau
Province resulted in annual carbon emissions
equivalent to 122 percent of the Netherlands
total annual emissions, 58 percent of Australia's
annual emissions, 39 per cent of annual
UK emissions and 26 per cent of annual German
emissions.
That report also found
that the province had Indonesia’s highest
deforestation rates, substantially driven
by the operations of global paper giants
APP and competitor Asia Pacific Resources
International Holdings Limited (APRIL).
Until 2002, the 700,000
ha of Kampar peninsular were still fully
covered by by natural forest, but clearing
for APP and APRIL pulp mills and related
plantation development has been the major
factor in cover being reduced to 400,000
ha by 2007
The Kampar peninsula
area is also considered one of the last
havens for critically endangered Sumatran
tigers, whose wild population is estimated
to be down to just 400-500. It is feared
that Sumatran tigers may be on course to
follow Indonesia’s Java and Bali tigers
into extinction.
The landscape was designated
a “regional priority” tiger conservation
landscape by the world’s leading tiger scientists
in 2006. A preliminary estimate by WWF-Indonesia
shows that a well-managed Kampar peninsula
could be home to as many as 60 tigers.
“Even as our investigators
were out surveying the site last month,
they came across tiger tracks walking along
the APP logging road,” said Nursamsu of
WWF-Indonesia and Eyes on the Forest coordinator.
“But the tigers of Kampar
don’t stand a chance once APP begins logging
full-scale and the poachers discover there’s
easy access to this critical tiger habitat.”
Local NGO network Jikalahari
and WWF have formally proposed that the
Ministry of Forestry protect the natural
forest of Kampar. Jikalahari also jointly
signed an MoU with Siak and Pelalawan District
Administrations at the UN Climate Change
Conference in Bali last year.
APP told Eyes of the
Forest that the Siak district government
had granted the company permission to build
the highway to connect the two remote villages
of Teluk Lanus and Sungai Rawa. But satellite
images show that the road was not built
anywhere close to the two villages, but
does connect to two new logging concessions
affiliated with APP.
”APP claimed that it
was building this state-of-the-art, paved
highway for the benefit of the local communities,”
said Susanto Kurniawan of Jikalahari.
“It’s shameful to see
a multibillion-dollar enterprise hiding
behind the needs of desperately poor, isolated
villagers, who will receive absolutely no
benefit from this road but will likely suffer
the consequences of APP’s activities.”
The logging concessions
also suffer from irregularities, not least
being an apparent contravention on clearing
natural forest in good condition for plantation
development or clearing on deep peat soils.
Both concessions are based on licenses issued
by District heads, who are not supposed
to issue such licenses, according to Eyes
on the Forest.
As well as Bukit
Tigapuluh, APP also is currently threatening
the Senepis and Kerumutan peatland forests
in central Sumatra, Eyes on the Forest said.
