20
Oct 2008 - Pekanbaru, Indonesia – Indonesia's
newly announced commitment to saving Sumatra
is facing an early test, following revelations
that Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) had pushed
a 45-kilometer, legally questionable logging
highway through prime Sumatran tiger habitat.
The latest road, passing
through protected areas, proposed protected
areas and deep peat areas banned from clearing
due to massive carbon stores, is the third
new controversial logging road associated
with APP, under the umbrella of its holding
group Sinar Mas Group (SMG) and affiliates,
to come to light in the past year.
The existence of the
road, servicing two equally controversial
APP and affiliate-owned concessions in the
Senepis lowland forest, was revealed in
an investigative report issued today by
the Eyes on the Forest group of NGOs battling
deforestation in Raui Province. The group,
including WWF-Indonesia and local NGOs Jikalahari
and Walhi Riau, has highlighted previous
instances of illegal clearing by APP and
other companies in the central Sumatran
province which has recorded some of the
world's highest deforestation rates.
“Unfortunately, this
logging project is just the latest in a
continuing pattern of wholesale natural
forest destruction by APP and its associates
in Sumatra,” said Johny Setiawan Mundung,
Director Executive of Walhi Riau.
“Our field investigators
found that APP has completed a 45-kilometer
highway through the Senepis peat forest
and paved nearly half of it already, even
though we could find no permit for the road.”
The revelations come
just over a week after the Indonesian ministers
of Forestry, Environment, Interior and Public
Works were joined by all 10 provincial governors
from Sumatra at the World Conservation Congress
in Barcelona, Spain to announce a commitment
to protect the natural forests and ecosystems
of the world's sixth largest island.
Draining or disturbance
of the deep peat soils under forests such
as Senepis results in globally significant
emissions. Global discussions on financial
mechanisms for avoided deforestation could
soon result in countries like Indonesia
receiving more from investors for forest
preservation than forest destruction.
“The building of this
road has resulted in a massive, 50-meter-wide
gash of opened forest along the 45 kilometers,”
said Hariansyah Usman, deputy coordinator
of Jikalahari. “The road splits the Senepis
peat forest in two, releasing significant
amounts of climate-altering carbon emissions
from the clearing and drainage canals on
both sides.”
Clearing and road building
in the area have also been linked with an
upsurge in human tiger conflict. NGOs report
that at least eight people have been killed
by tigers since the APP started clearing
the forest block for its pulpwood plantations
in 1999.
The Eyes on the Forest
report notes that large areas of both concessions
were at one point listed for inclusion in
a proposed Tiger National Park and subsequent
unexplained changes to the proposal saw
it expanded to a larger area offering much
less protection to the critically endangered
tigers and including only very small areas
of the logging concessions.
The two APP-affiliated
logging concession holders in Senepis, PT
Ruas Utama Jaya and PT Suntara Gajapati,
are among 14 timber and pulp companies currently
being prosecuted by Riau Police for alleged
environmental and forest crimes, following
revelations by Jikalahari and Walhi Riau.
There is a province-wide
de facto logging moratorium in place as
Riau Police conduct an illegal logging investigation
involving APP and other companies. NGOs
charge the company with using the moratorium
to put in place infrastructure such as roads
for a renewed assault on Sumatra's forests.
Previous reports by
NGOs this year found that APP and its affiliated
companies were opening new logging roads
and clearing natural forest in the Kampar
peatland forest, a high emission risk area,
and the Bukit Tigapuluh dry lowland forest
block, critical habitat for orangutans,
tigers, elephants and the Orang Rimba indigenous
peoples.
“Major paper customers
all over the globe have cut ties with APP
because of its unsustainable and likely
illegal activities,” said Nazir Foead, director
of corporate engagement WWF-Indonesia. “We
call on APP to stop this unsustainable clearing
of our forests and to start behaving as
a responsible corporate citizen. We recommend
current and future buyers and investors
of APP not to have any business with APP
until that time.”
Among the companies
that have stopped buying from APP because
of its business practices in Sumatra are
Staples Inc., the largest office retailer
in the United States; the Ricoh and Fuji
Xerox Groups, both headquartered in Japan;
the Metro Group in Germany and Woolworths
of Australia.
