Asia’s second-largest pulp and paper manufacturer, Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd. (APRIL), has announced new policies to boost reforestation efforts and sustainable wood sourcing amid criticism from green groups.
Environment NGOs have intensified criticism of plantation companies like APRIL after Riau province declared a state of emergency in February as forest fires blanketed the region with haze. APRIL has about 960,000 hectares of plantations in Riau, 2,000 hectares of which have been affected by the fires.
“Growth is important but sustainability is also important. We are a long-time player,” Praveen Singhavi, president of the 11-year-old company, told The Jakarta Post on Monday as he announced a new policy direction on sustainable forestation.
The policy includes stopping the establishment of new plantations by December this year and a moratorium on plantation development in forests considered to have a high conservation value (HCV).
APRIL also plans to harvest mill wood exclusively from its renewable plantations by 2019, to double the size of APRIL’s forest restoration program to 40,000 hectares, and to conserve 450,000 hectares of forest, which is almost equal to the size of its plantations.
It would also stop buying materials from any suppliers that sourced products from HCV forests — those rich in environmental, socioeconomic biodiversity or landscape value — as part of its sustainable forest management policy (SFMP).
“We will not expand in new pulp mills or new pulp plants as that takes [wood] fiber, but we can absolutely expand into the paper business as it is not dependent on fiber but on pulp,” Singhavi said, adding 150,000 trees would be planted every year.
Two thirds of APRIL’s fiber — elements extracted from trees essential for producing pulp — come from the company’s plantations and the number is expected to increase.
The Singapore-based company’s pulp production capacity is 2.8 million tons while its paper production capacity is about 850,000 tons.
APRIL has around 460,000 hectares of planted areas from about 960,000 hectares of plantations. Its products are marketed in over 75 countries across the world, according to the company’s website.
“There’s a lot of skepticism in the outside world,” he added, while announcing the appointment of an independent committee to oversee the progress of the new policies.
The Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) comprises five forest and social experts led by Joseph Lawson, a veteran of 34 years in the forestry industry, including Al Azhar, a community leader in Riau and chief executive of the Malay Custom Institution of Riau; James Griffiths of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD); Jeff Sayer, development practice professor at Australia’s James Cook University; and Budi Wardhana, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) policy, sustainability and transformation director.
“Our primary goal is to help implement the sustainable forest policy APRIL has come up with to monitor our progress on being transparent, to communicate that progress and to verify that progress,” Lawson said.
