The Bigger Picture: Conservation and Eco-Restoration Sits Alongside Production Forestry In Indonesia

april forest

It is important we comment on a video recently distributed by Greenpeace depicting legal commercial plantation forestry activity in Indonesia involving APRIL and its suppliers.

In isolation and to people not familiar with plantation forestry processes around the world, the images selectively used by Greenpeace may seem stark. In context, this is only part of what production forestry looks like. We suggest you watch our own videos of conservation and eco-restoration to demonstrate the complete picture of production forestry in this and other land concession areas managed by APRIL or our suppliers. The bigger picture is that we do a lot to ensure operations are sustainable, including conservation and ecosystem restoration alongside sustainable production forestry.

The activity depicted in the Greenpeace video involves one of APRIL’s suppliers. As an APRIL supplier, they are operating legally on government-licensed plantation forestry area and in compliance with laws and regulations and in accordance with APRIL’s SFMP. The wood that is sourced is from degraded secondary forest land that has been classified as non-High Conservation Value (HCV) forest. This area will be replanted as part of a sustainable plantation model.

Let’s also put this video into an even bigger context. APRIL’s total licensed government concession areas comprise about 0.4% of Indonesian forestry, where 50% of APRIL’s total concession areas have been developed as sustainable plantation forest, creating over 90,000 employment opportunities and localised economic growth. Of the balance, 250,000 hectares are actively conserved and protected, while we are undertaking eco-restoration of a further 40,000 hectares of previously degraded land. Most of the balance of our total concession areas is used to support livelihood plantations for community use and infrastructure.

The fact is, production forestry, conservation and ecosystem restoration sit side-by-side in an Indonesian context. The following videos should be watched alongside too.

Supporting forests, people & biodiversity (RER)