07 Jan 2008 - Field
investigations in central Sumatra have found
that the home of two tribes of indigenous
people and endangered elephants, tigers
and orang-utans faces “being split in half”
by the construction of “a legally questionable
highway” for logging trucks servicing one
of the world’s largest paper companies.
The investigation, by
WWF Indonesia and other scientific and conservation
groups, also found the crucial Bukit Tigapuluh
Forest Landscape threatened by illegal logging,
clearing for plantations and other roadbuilding
– much of it linked to operations of Asia
Pulp & Paper (APP) and its partners.
The forest is one of
the last large forests in Sumatra, boasts
some of the richest biodiversity on earth
and is one of Indonesia’s most important
habitats for numerous species. It is the
location of a successful conservation project
to reintroduce orangutans, which now reside
in a part of the landscape that is proposed
for protected status but is already being
cleared by APP-affiliated companies, the
report found.
Clearing for the highway,
which allows logging trucks easier access
to APP’s pulp mills in Jambi Province, appears
to have taken place after APP’s forestry
operations in neighboring Riau Province
were halted due to a police investigation
of illegal logging. APP partners have cleared
an estimated 20,000 hectares of natural
forest in the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape,
with some clearing appearing to be in violation
of Indonesian law.
“With its high conservation
values, the Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape should
be protected and thus all natural forest
clearance in the area has to be stopped,”
said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia’s Forest
Program Director.
“APP is one of the world’s
largest paper companies and we believe its
global customers expect it to act like a
responsible corporate citizen. The company
should commission independent assessments
of the conservation values of these areas
in a publicly transparent manner before
any conversion takes place, and commit to
protect and manage conservation values identified
in these areas.”
Indonesian law has a
set of criteria and requirements to be fulfilled
prior to conversion of natural forest. Yet
evidence found during the investigation
indicates APP-affiliated companies converted
hundreds of hectares before fulfilling these
requirements, thus violating Indonesian
law. Part of the area being cleared is in
a proposed Specific Protected Area that
serves as habitat for about 90 Sumatran
orangutans recently introduced into the
area for the first time in more than 150
years.
Unplanned and illegal
road building is especially devastating
to such areas, opening them up to poaching,
illegal settlement and plantation activities
and undermining the viability of indigenous
communities. One of the tribes threatened
by APP-linked activities is wholly dependent
on the Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape.
“We urge APP and its
partners to stop clearing any more natural
forest whose ecological, environmental and
cultural conservation values have not been
determined and to stop sourcing any of its
purchased wood from such forests,” Ian Kosasih
said.
“We also call on the
government to ensure an end to all forms
of forest clearance found to violate national
Indonesian laws and regulations.”
The investigation report
was released in Indonesia in January by
WWF Indonesia and partners, KKI WARSI, Zoological
Society of London, Frankfurt Zoological
Society and Yayasan Program Konservasi Harimau
Sumatera (PKHS).
