APP to develop forest conservation area

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

One of Indonesia's largest pulp and paper companies, Asia Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd (APP), plans to convert about 76,000 hectares of its timber forest into a conservation area.

The company is also completing a sustainability action plan, which covers the development of conservation areas, community development and the tracking of timber.

"We want to be able to have renewable raw material input into our mills so that we can produce pulp and paper.

"We're also responding to the aspirations of our stakeholders who want us to show how we're going to be a responsible corporation and citizens," APP director of sustainability and stakeholder engagement Arian Ardie told The Jakarta Post.

APP currently manages around 900,000 hectares of industrial timber forest in the provinces of Riau and Jambi. The planned conservation area is in addition to the company's existing conservation areas.

The country's forestry law says that all owners of industrial timber forests need to put aside 20 percent of their total area for conservation and development of indigenous trees and greenbelts.

Arian also said that APP would invest around US$7 million for the conservation area, and around $50 million in total to accomplish the plan, which is projected to be completed in five years.

"This is probably the largest budget a private company has set aside for conservation. It's also the first time for an Indonesian company in the natural resources sector to have such a commitment to sustainability," Arian said.

He added that the company would soon seek approval from the government to convert part of its land into a conservation area, given that the land was purchased from the government under licenses for industrial timber forest.

Arian saw the decision to set aside this portion of their land more as an investment rather than a loss.

"This (decision) will assure (the availability of) our raw materials. Without doing that, there's a risk we won't have enough input to continue making pulp and paper.

"It also enables us to continue to access the key markets around the world. Markets are demanding sustainability, and they want to know that the products they use come from well-managed forest," said Arian.

Arian said that APP had two sets of action plans to help curb illegal logging.

"We want to guarantee that we're not, by accident, taking in illegal logs. We are also trying to gain control of our own resources, and track the wood from the forest directly into the mill.

"We're also going to establish some forest rangers and security patrols in this area to make clear where the boundaries are ... that this is a conservation area," he said.

Arian stated that the company's exports to countries such as Japan, the European Union, Australia and the United States reached over $2 billion last year.