PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper eyes sustainable forestry
PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper eyes sustainable forestry
PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) is accelerating the establishment of acacia plantations in the province of Riau as a sustainable wood source.
The company started harvesting its acacia plantations in 2001 and its Fiber Line 1 will be fully supported with plantation wood by 2004.
By 2008/9, RAPP's tree plantations will fully support the company's mill requirements of two million tons or more per year.
"During this year alone, our planting is expected to reach 27,700 hectares on our own concession and another 20,000 hectares on joint-operation concession areas and community forestry sites, thereby bringing our total established plantations to about 200,000 hectares by the end of December," environment manager Canesio P. Munoz said.
RAPP needs 300,000 to 350,000 hectares of fully developed and productive tree plantations to sustainably support its mill in Kerinci. The tree plantation program is being carried out together with RAPP's joint venture partners and community forestry projects with villagers.
The company, a subsidiary of the Singapore-based Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd. (APRIL), plants acacia mangium in mineral lands and acacia crassicarpa in lowland areas. Both trees are ready for harvest in five to seven years after planting.
Munoz said the operation of RAPP's pulp plant with a design capacity of two million air-dry tons per annum needed continuous wood supplies from around 300,000 hectares of sustainably managed acacia plantation land.
As the environmentally sound plantations were still being developed, the company, under its short-term strategy, utilizes wood coming from the clearing of land areas authorized and zoned by the provincial government for agricultural development.
"The use of pulpwood from land-clearing areas imparts an economic value to the raw materials that would otherwise be wasted and disposed of by burning," Munoz noted. "Wood procurement from these legal sources is in line with APRIL's no- burn policy and helps minimize environmental pollution."
RAPP processes a portion of its pulp output in its own paper mill in Kerinci, with an annual designed capacity of 350,000 tons, and exports the remainder to Asian and European countries.
Munoz said RAPP had a strong interest in establishing sustainable forests for the pulpwood supplies, so that it would be able to recover its investment.
He said that in implementing its sustainable management, the company conducted forest planning and survey of riparian zones in advance of the harvesting operations. Streams that were three to 30 meters wide were given 25- to 50-meter protective zones on both sides, while rivers or other water sources that had widths larger than 30 meters were demarcated with 100-meter protected zones on both sides.
The harvesting operation was carried out with manual cutting teams and the wood was extracted by skidders. Wood residues or slash such as tops, branches, twigs and leaves were left on the ground and evenly spread n harvesting compartment preparatory to planting.
Spreading evenly and leaving behind the slash would minimize soil erosion, provide additional sources of nutrients when the materials decomposed, and prevent the growth of competing vegetation in the early stages of the plantation.
The Environmental Management System (EMS) of RAPP's forestry operations had been certified as meeting the requirements of the ISO 14001 EMS Standard. The EMS of six sectors (Teso East & West, Logas South & North, Ukui and Baserah) were certified in November 2001, and the EMS of the remaining four sectors (Mandau, Langgam, Pelelawan & Cerenti) in June 2002. SGS Yarsley International Certification Services (UK) conducted the certification audits.
"The ISO 14001 EMS shall be used as the documentation tool in achieving forest certification by 2004/5," he Munoz said. The company plans to use the forest certification standard of the Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia (LEI) Criteria & Indicators for Sustainable Forest Plantation Management or any credible international standard applicable to Indonesia.
He said that RAPP, in its participation in the curbing of illegal logging and poaching, took necessary measures such as involving local community members in its business activities, introducing community development programs to them and preventing illegal wood from entering its mill.
Wood delivered to the mill, for example, should pass through two checkpoints before the entrance of log trucks into the wood yard.
The first checkpoint was manned 24 hours by government forestry authorities, who were responsible for checking documentation on government approvals, while the second one was manned by internal audit teams to ensure legal compliance.