Giant paper company's latest promise no more than protecting already protected forest

APP promises to stop felling forests it has already cut

August 2012. The "sustainability roadmap" issued recently by controversial Indonesia deforester Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) dramatically backtracks on a series of promises it has made - and broken - previously, an analysis by the Riau NGO coalition Eyes on the Forest has found.

"We were abundantly justified in not trusting their 2004 Sustainability Action Plan promise to cease native forest pulping by 2007 and responsible paper buyers or consumers should be dismayed that nearly a decade later, APP's latest Sustainability Roadmap doesn't even promise to go that far by 2015," said Muslim Radyid, coordinator of Eyes on the Forest member Jikalahari (Forest Rescue Network, Riau).

Part of the giant Sinar Mas Group (SMG), APP announced in early June that it would temporarily halt clearing of natural forest in only its "own" concessions while it conducts assessments for forests of high conservation values, an industry practice that conservation groups have long called for APP to do.

"Our analysis found there is no natural forest left to apply their new policies to in Riau Province, since all natural forest in their ‘own' concessions had either already been cleared or protected under Indonesian law or APP showcase commitments which are also mostly nothing more than confirmation that the company would obey the law," said Radyid. "We believe that APP's new policies offer no conservation benefit for any forest outside Riau either."

The Eyes on the Forest analysis APP/SMG: The pulping continues finds "the fate of up to 1.2 million hectares, more than half of Riau's remaining forest, remains in danger of being cleared by APP/SMG's so-called "independent suppliers" who can continue to deliver natural forest wood to the company's mills unaffected by the new forest policies."

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/app-forest-felling.html#cr