25 July 2012 - Pekanbaru,
Sumatra; Gland, Switzerland: The “sustainability
roadmap” issued recently by controversial
Indonesia deforester Asia Pulp & Paper
(APP) dramatically backtracks on a series
of promises it has made – and broken - previously,
an analysis by the Riau NGO coalition Eyes
on the Forest has found.
“We were abundantly
justified in not trusting their 2004 Sustainability
Action Plan promise to cease native forest
pulping by 2007 and responsible paper buyers
or consumers should be dismayed that nearly
a decade later, APP’s latest Sustainability
Roadmap doesn’t even promise to go that
far by 2015,” said Muslim Rasyid, coordinator
of Eyes on the Forest member Jikalahari
(Forest Rescue Network, Riau).
Part of the giant Sinar
Mas Group (SMG), APP announced in early
June that it would temporarily halt clearing
of natural forest in only its “own” concessions
while it conducts assessments for forests
of high conservation values, an industry
practice that conservation groups have long
called for APP to do.
“Our analysis found
there is no natural forest left to apply
their new policies to in Riau Province,
since all natural forest in their ‘own’
concessions had either already been cleared
or protected under Indonesian law or APP
showcase commitments which are also mostly
nothing more than confirmation that the
company would obey the law,” said Rasyid.
“We believe that APP’s new policies offer
no conservation benefit for any forest outside
Riau either.”
The Eyes on the Forest
analysis APP/SMG: The pulping continues
finds “the fate of up to 1.2 million hectares,
more than half of Riau’s remaining forest,
remains in danger of being cleared by APP/SMG’s
so-called “independent suppliers” who can
continue to deliver natural forest wood
to the company’s mills unaffected by the
new forest policies.”
These forests include
some of the last refuges of the critically
endangered Sumatran tiger and elephant,
as well as forests on carbon-rich deep peat,
whose clearing will lead to very high carbon
emissions for decades to come.
“This so-called roadmap
to sustainability is just another element
of APP’s investment in greenwashing, rather
than greening,” said Rod Taylor, Director
of the WWF International Forests Programme.
“This is not a roadmap to sustainability,
but a roadmap to pulp more of Indonesia’s
forests.”
Not only is APP backtracking
from the broken sustainability commitments
of 2004 and 2007, it also appears to be
moving back from commitments made just a
year ago in its “Vision 2020, a roadmap
to guide sustainability principles, goals
and program.”
In this announcement,
APP said it would “source 100 percent of
its pulpwood supply from sustainable plantation
stock by the end of 2015”. The 2012 roadmap
switches terminology from “100 per cent
sourcing” to “100 per cent capability” with
the introduction of a new loophole for “Mixed
Tropical Hardwood (MTH) waste & residues”.
“APP/SMG: The pulping
continues” includes photographic evidence
of clearfelled rainforest areas APP calls
“waste and residues.
Eyes on the Forest members
including WWF and Walhi Riau are calling
on APP and SMG to immediately stop natural
forest wood from forest conversion entering
any of its pulp mills.
“Until APP makes this
commitment and finds a way to demonstrate
it is not just yet another empty promise,
its financiers, paper buyers and paper consumers
need to maintain and extend their own growing
moratorium on dealing with APP,” said Hariansyah
Usman, Executive Director of Walhi Riau.
+ More
Laos in game of high
stakes as it pushes ahead with Xayaburi
dam construction
24 July 2012 - Hanoi,
Vietnam – Construction work is marching
ahead at the Xayaburi dam site in northern
Laos and risks making a mockery of the decision
last December by Mekong countries to delay
building the dam on the Mekong mainstream
pending further studies on the impacts of
the controversial project, warns WWF.
An international delegation
of ambassadors, donors and NGOs, including
WWF, attended a meeting with the Laos government
last week to listen to presentations about
the project and inspect the dam site at
Xayaburi. The meeting followed mounting
concerns and protests about land clearing
and construction work underway at the site.
“While Laos’ decision
to host a visit to the dam site is positive,
it’s clear construction is advancing,” said
Dr. Jian-hua Meng, WWF’s Sustainable Hydropower
Specialist. “According to Mr. Viraphonh
Viravong, Laos’ Vice-Minister of Energy
and Mines, a coffer dam - used to divert
the river’s flow away from the in-river
construction site - will be built by the
end of this year. This will be the first
direct intervention in the riverbed, and
will mark a milestone in the ongoing dam
construction.”
“Now is the critical
time for the region’s governments to take
a strong stance on Xayaburi to make their
concerns heard loud and clear.”
According to Mr. Viravong
and Ch Karnchang, the Thai developer of
the $US3.8 billion project, the dam is going
ahead as per their initial plan, with any
alterations to be carried out as the build
progresses.
The site visit followed
mixed messages about the status of the dam.
Laos’ Foreign Minister confirmed at a recent
meeting hosted by US Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton, that the project was suspended,
while Ch Karnchang’s chairman, Aswin Kongsiri,
claimed they had scheduled time for possible
delays but expected to finish on target
in 2020.
“Laos is hoping neighbouring
governments will be won over by their verbal
commitments to mitigate the dam’s impacts
before they fully understand what the impacts
will be,” added Dr. Meng.
The delegation visiting
the site heard presentations from Pöyry,
the Finnish water consulting firm advising
Laos on the dam engineering. Pöyry
reported that complementary studies were
underway and would be on-going until the
end of 2012, and concluded that the project
will have no unacceptable negative effects.
“Laos expects its neighbours
to take a dangerous leap of faith and trust
that the risks associated with this project
will somehow be resolved while construction
moves ahead,” added Dr. Meng. “This dubious
approach not only pre-empts the conclusions
of the on-going studies, but clearly contravenes
international best practice.”
Pöyry drew heavy
criticism last year when they advised Laos
that the Xayaburi project should go ahead
despite their own review stating that additional
baseline data on biology, ecology and livelihood
restoration is needed, as well as improved
knowledge concerning the proposed passes
for migrating fish. More than 700 species
of fish ply the Mekong’s water, including
the iconic and endangered Mekong giant catfish.
“Resting the future
of the Mekong on flawed analysis and gaps
in critical data could have dire consequences
for the livelihoods of millions of people
living in the Mekong river basin,” added
Dr. Meng. “Relying on Poyry’s discredited
research is simply not the responsible way
forward.”
Delegates visiting the
site also heard a presentation from Compagnie
Nationale du Rhône (CNR), a French
company that Laos hired to provide further
analysis. CNR had issued a report describing
possible ways to pass sediment through the
dam. However, the report is based largely
on theory that has never been used successfully
in the Mekong region and CNR themselves
conclude that further data needs to be collected
to confirm the feasibility.
“Large amounts of sand
essential to maintaining balance in the
ecosystem and the integrity of the Mekong
delta needs to pass through the dam,” added
Dr. Meng. “This represents a major challenge
for the dam project.”
The Lower Mekong, one
of the world’s last large untamed stretches
of river, supports nearly 60 million people
with its rich fisheries. In order for migratory
fish to move up and down the river they
would need swim through the dam via the
proposed fish passages.
“Nowhere in the tropics
has a successful fish passage been built
for a dam the size of Xayaburi,” said Dr.
Eric Baran of the World Fish Centre in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia. “It is unreasonable to assume
that the proposed fish passage options will
be efficient when they are neither based
on successful experience in a similar context
nor on a study of the local species.”
As the first dam project
to enter the Mekong River Commission’s (MRC)
formal consultation process, the Xayaburi
dam will test the MRC’s effectiveness, and
the consensus decision reached by Ministers
will set an important precedent for 10 other
dams proposed for the lower mainstream of
the river.
“The four Mekong countries
should jointly reach a decision on a go
or no go for Xayaburi that is based on sound
science and not on optimistic speculations,”
concluded Dr. Meng.
WWF urges Ministers
to defer a decision on the dam for 10 years
to ensure critical data can be gathered
and a decision can be reached using sound
science and analysis. WWF advises lower
Mekong countries considering hydropower
projects to prioritise dams on some Mekong
tributaries that are easier to assess and
are considered to have a much lower impact
and risk.
