Indonesia’s rainforests offer shelter, livelihoods and cultural identity to around 40 million Indonesians, while millions of others have indirect benefits from them. The economic value of the benefits from intact forests to these people is unquantifiable, but likely to total billions of dollars in food, jobs and other cultural benefits. APRIL has a long history of conflicts with indigenous people and local communities. Communities that rely on cultivating rubber, sago, and other crops within the forest landscape have been at issue with APRIL since 2009, including on Riau’s Kampar Peninsula and coastal islands, causing some residents to resort to drastic protest measures, including sewing their mouths shut.

These conflicts need to be addressed in a transparent and participatory way, in order to establish confidence that APRIL is ready to respect local community rights, including  Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). The civil society demeaned APRIL and its sister company TPL to establish conflict resolution units with the necessary authority and training to mobilize resources and resolve conflicts with action plans and timeframes agreed with communities and their chosen advisors.