Unsustainable Business Model
APRIL should “change their unsustainable business model and stop draining peat soils and converting forests”.
APRIL: We fundamentally disagree with any claim that our business model is unsustainable. In fact, our key objective and one that we are diligently working towards, is to reach a point where all of our fibre comes from renewable and sustainable plantation sources. That is at the heart of our business model – making good commercial and environmental sense.
To reach that point, we are in the final stages of establishing plantations on our concessions and waiting for them to mature – which takes about 5 – 6 years in Indonesia. While that occurs, about 30 per cent of our fibre comes from mixed hardwood derived from the clearance of plantable areas in our concessions and in our supply partner concessions.
In establishing plantations, APRIL first conducts HCV assessments of its concessions and identifies, conserves and protects high conservation value forest – more than 200,000 hectares of conservation forest and indigenous tree zones have been set aside and protected in APRIL and its supply partner’s concessions.
As to water level management on peatlands, APRIL applies a science-based approach to maintaining and enhancing water levels where our operations are on peatland. The areas where we operate are often on land already degraded by historical selective logging activities by others and the impact of illegal logging and human encroachment. In many cases, our water management approach enhances or restores water levels to closer to original levels.
