Indonesia’s archipelago contains a great portion ofthe world’s plant and animal species - including 10 percent of the world’s flowering plant species, 12 percent of all mammal species, 15 percent of all reptiles and amphibian species, and 17 percent of all bird species.
This diversity includes some of the world’s most endangered species including orang-utans, Sumatran tigers, Sumatran rhinoceroses and Asian elephants, and more than 1,500 species of birds and thousands of plant species are all a part of the natural wonder of Indonesia. Scientific expeditions in parts of Indonesia regularly uncover animals never before seen.
APRIL produces mainly in Indonesia and China.
The bulk of APRIL’s pulp production in Indonesia is based in Riau Province, in central Sumatra, one of the last refuges for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger.
Deforestation in Riau has been driving the Sumatran tiger to extinction. In 2007, Sumatran elephant and tiger populations in Riau have declined to as few as 210 and 192 individuals.
Even APRIL has recognized that the natural forests it is logging in Kampar merit designation as High Conservation Value (HCV).
In January 2014 APRIL released a first and still
insufficient Sustainable Forest Management Policy. The company has faced intense controversy previously for violations of its own forest conservation commitments, including its insufficient Sustainable Forest Management Policy version 1.0 released
In May 2014, WWF and the coalition Eyes on the Forest found an APRIL supplier, PT Adindo Hutani Lestari (PT AHL), destroying peatland rainforest in North Kalimantan.
A month later Greenpeace caught APRIL destroying forested peatland on Pulau Padang, a small island off the coast of Sumatra.
A December 2014 report by Eyes on the Forest further documented continued violations of APRIL’s own policy commitment not to clear potential High Conservation Value Forests like those of the peatland forests on the coastal island of Pulau Pedang. In June 2015 APRIL finally committed to stop any logging of natural forests.
In June 2015, APRIL announced a Sustainable Forest Management Policy version 2.0 (SFMP 2.0), which announced a commitment to zero deforestation and an immediate stop to clearing of natural forests. The SFMP 2.0 by APRIL is within a “Sustainability Framework” recently developed by its parent, RGE Group.
After many years of campaigning to stop deforestation by APRIL, civil society organizations in the Environmental Paper Network welcomed the move in various tones. But all remain cautious, waiting to look how the policy will be implemented on the ground. Local and international NGOs will be monitoring the implementation of the policy by APRIL.
Interactive lists of public data on identified Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) and Sinar Mas forest-products subsidiaries, affiliates, and brands. For more background on these companies, see the Indonesia Risk Assessment Case Study.
