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Jakarta Post

Greenpeace accuses paper giant of illegal logging

Environmental organization Greenpeace Indonesia has accused Sinar Mas Group-owned industry giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) of illegally exploiting protected trees

Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, March 2, 2012

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Greenpeace accuses paper giant of illegal logging

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nvironmental organization Greenpeace Indonesia has accused Sinar Mas Group-owned industry giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) of illegally exploiting protected trees.

A year-long investigation carried out by Greenpeace’s activists on APP’s Indah Kiat Perawang mill in Riau province has identified that least 46 of 56 sample logs were allegedly from ramin trees (Gonystylus).

The logs, which were up to one meter in diameter, were found mixed in with other timber from rainforest trees at the mill last year, Greenpeace alleged.

“Our investigation has found that APP is breaking the Indonesian law, driving Sumatran tigers and ramin trees closer to extinction and undermining CITE, the international conservation agreement governing trade of protected species. This is contradictory to APP’s public claim to have a zero tolerance for illegal timber,” Bustar Maitar, head of Greenpeace’s Global Forest Network for Indonesia, said on Thursday.

Greenpeace called on APP customers to stop buying products from the company to “clean up its act and hold on to its commitment”.

The ramin is a medium-sized branchless tree that can grow to 24 meters. It grows slowly and mainly thrives in peat land.

The logging of the ramin tree, which requires the clearing of peat forest, releases large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Ramin trees have been protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 2003. The Indonesian government issued a number of regulations in 2001 to protect the trees and ban exports of all ramin products.

“We also call on the government to immediately seize all illegal ramin from APP’s operations in Indonesia. We have given the evidence to the authorities to help their efforts in improving governance in the forestry sector,” Bustar said.

Greenpeace has also lodged a formal complaint to the Forestry Ministry.

Forestry Ministry’s director general of forest protection and conservation, Darori, confirmed that officials received the complaints from Greenpeace.

“We applaud Greenpeace for informing us about APP allegedly illegally trading ramin because the company doesn’t have a permit to do so. However, it will be very difficult to verify the report as Greenpeace did not give us the actual proof, such as samples of the ramin. They only gave us written report and photos,” he told The Jakarta Post.

Darori said that the ministry could reprimand APP or revoke its permit if it was proven to be guilty.

In response, APP said in a written statement that the company took any evidence of violation in the protection of an endangered tree species very seriously.

The company said that it had dispatched a team of specialists to the Indah Kiat Perawang mill to find any evidence to support the Greenpeace allegations.

An APP official who did not want to be named said that all of the company’s major pulp and paper mills, including the Indah Kiat Perawang mill, had received certificates from the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification International and the Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute (LEI).

“APP implements stringent externally-audited legal origin certification [LoV] and chain of custody [CoC] systems and protocols to track certified material from forests to the final product to ensure that the wood, wood fiber and non-wood fiber contained in the products or product line can be traced back to a certified forest,” the official said.

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