- Indonesia: Call for Action against certification of Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper’s timber plantations

 

The giant pulp company PT. Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (PT. RAPP), operating in Riau Province, is applying for a Plantation Forest Management Certificate from the Indonesia Ecolabeling Institute (LEI) Certification System.

 

Riau-based NGOs and several regional and national NGOs are strongly challenging the application on several grounds including:

 

* Based on Landsat images, “there occurred land conversion long before the definitive permit was issued on 1 October 2004.” According to Civil Society’s “Critical Response” (1) long before the Minister of Forestry endorsed 75,640 hectare to the company, PT. RAPP had logged the natural forest where its Pelalawan Sector lies.

 

* 46.43% of the entire PT. RAPP’S industrial  timber plantation in the Pelalawan sector lie inside the Protected Forest designated under the 1994 Riau Province’s Spatial Plan in direct violation of several government criteria and standards that allow industrial timber plantations only in what is classified as “Production Forests” (for timber extraction).

 

* The entire PT RAPP’s HTI – Pelalawan Sector, before it was exploited by the company, had been a pristine natural forest, as is shown in an image captured by Landsat in 1996.

 

In their Call for Campaign Action (2) launched in January 2008, several NGOs:

            

1.     “appeal to LEI to cancel the application, which is currently under assessment by certifier Mutu Agung Lestari (MAL).

 

2.     appeal to buyers and consumers not to purchase pulp and paper produced by the company as they are produced at the cost of forest destruction and in direct violation of the Indonesia’s existing laws.

 

3.     support the government of Indonesia (i.e. the law enforcers) to continue the legal proceedings against PT RAPP’s violation of the permit.”

 

Article based on the following documents:

(1) [http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Indonesia/Civil_Society_Critical_Response.pdf]

(2) [http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Indonesia/Campaign_Action.html]

Produced by several NGOs and sent by Rivani Noor, CAPPA, e-mail: rivani@cappa.or.id, www.cappa.or.id