Asia Pulp & Paper Denies Clear Cutting Allegations In Senepis Tiger Sanctuary

AsianScientist (Dec. 16, 2011) – Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has called on WWF International to disassociate itself from a report by Sumatra-based NGO coalition Eyes on the Forest, which it claims to contain false allegations regarding the company’s operations.

APP released this statement today in response to a new EOF report recently published by WWF claiming that APP is converting parts of the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary in Sumatra into pulpwood plantation.

The report included images that EOF claimed were satellite images of the concession operated by APP’s supplier, PT Ruas Utama Jaya (RUJ), clear cutting trees inside the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary.

In response, APP published official government maps of the concession, which it claims to show that the pictures featured prominently in the EOF report were actually from RUJ’s legally-operated pulpwood concession outside of the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary.

APP has also published pictures of dense, natural forest that it claims to be of the real Senepis Tiger Sanctuary.

According to APP, independent, third-party auditing carried out on the RUJ concession this month shows that the conservation set aside by the company is actually almost 50 percent larger than what is required by the Indonesian government’s independent High Conservation Value Forest assessments of the area.

“We now call on WWF, an NGO with a good international reputation, to distance itself from the poorly researched and inaccurate report which does not help anyone who really cares about preserving the natural environment and wildlife of Sumatra,” said APP Managing Director Aida Greenbury.

Ms Greenbury added that forestry development in Indonesia involves a complex mixture of social and environmental issues, including illegal encroachments into protected areas.

APP also claimed that the EOF report contained factual errors, such as that Indonesian law prohibits land conversion on peat more than 3 meters deep; that APP has no independent, credible, third-party certification to demonstrate its sustainability; and that APP’s ‘wildlife protection zones’ in Riau and Jambi were less than 50,000 hectares (APP says it conserves 200,000 hectares).

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Source: Asia Pulp & Paper.
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