APRIL Gets Pulau Padang Go-Ahead
Indonesian government gives APRIL go-ahead to recommence Pulau Padang operations after extensive review of forestry plans and local consultation.
APRIL’s community engagement team present at one of more than 60 community consultation sessions on Pulau Padang
Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry has given APRIL permission to resume its plantation establishment operations at Pulau Padang in Riau Province, Indonesia after a year long review of APRIL’s land use management plans, conservation commitments and extensive additional consultation with local stakeholders.
The concession at Pulau Padang was licensed to APRIL in 2009 after an intensive four-year licensing process. APRIL halted activities in late 2011 to allow an independent Government-initiated mediation team to examine its plans and local community views after protests and violent acts toward APRIL staff, including the murder of one of its contractors.
APRIL had previously undertaken more than 60 community consultation sessions over 12 months, completed assessments of high conservation value areas within its concessions and reached agreements with 11 of 14 villages nearby its concessions.
As a result of a participatory forest boundary review process involving multiple stakeholders and reflecting APRIL’s approach to community dialogue, the Ministry of Forestry and APRIL reduced APRIL’s concession size in Pulau Padang by 17%. Effective area for plantation establishment was also reduced by 21%. Additional conservation areas have been agreed and land use management plans have been further adjusted to take into account creation of hydro buffer zones to contribute to protection of the peat dome core on Pulau Padang.
