Asia Pulp and Paper Group (APP) has launched an initiative to restore and support the conservation of one million hectares of rainforest across Indonesia.
The initiative is supported by many stakeholders in the industry including WWF, Greenpeace and NGO members of APP’s Solutions Working Group. It will have a significant impact on the landscapes both in and around the plantation concessions in APP’s supply chain, APP said.
The announcement comes as the continuation of APP’s Forest Conservation Policy (FCP) initiatives conducted over the previous years, which saw an immediate and permanent cessation of natural forest clearance across its supply chain.
Since then, the company has been working closely with stakeholders to implement the policy, with support from The Forest Trust. The company has also been carrying out consultation on how it should prioritize restoration of important areas, following the wide ranging biodiversity assessments in its concessions.
The commitment, which takes the company well beyond its legal conservation requirements, is approximately equivalent to the total area of plantation from which the company sourced pulp fiber in 2013.
Aida Greenbury, APP’s managing director of sustainability, said, “After over a year of implementing our FCP, it has become clear that the key to success of any efforts to halt deforestation in Indonesia is a landscape level approach to forest restoration and conservation.
“Land cannot be conserved or restored in isolation, the sustainability of the entire landscape must be taken into account and many stakeholders must be involved. We hope that by working with Indonesian and international stakeholders, as well as organisations such as WWF, The Forest Trust and Ekologika, our efforts will be much more effective.
“We believe that by assessing entire landscapes and creating clear tailor made objectives and strategies, the maximum possible level of conservation will be achieved, not just for natural forest in our concessions, but for areas around them as well.”
As a first step, APP will work with an NGO coalition to preserve the natural forest in the 30 Hills landscape (Bukit Tigapuluh) in Jambi, Sumatra – a vital habitat for tiger and elephant populations.
This will include increased protection of the corridor road from illegal activities, work on protecting the threatened elephant herd in the Tebo Multi Agro concession, and assessment of the viability of creating an animal corridor in the WKS concession which would connect important forest habitat blocks.
APP is currently in consultation with WWF and other stakeholders, to develop plans for identified priority landscapes in which APP and its suppliers have commercial forestry-based operations, which will then be implemented by the company in close collaboration with other relevant players in the landscape, while observing the principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).