Leading pulp and paper company halts harvesting of all natural forest as part of new sustainable forest management policy, reports BusinessGreen

Pulp and paper giant April will stop logging natural forests four years earlier than planned as part of a renewed effort to halt deforestation across its supply chain.

The Indonesia-based company announced that it had halted harvesting of all natural forest as of 15 May and will only use supplies from its own plantations. The move brings forward the company’s goal to end natural forest clearance by 2019.

The latest pledge forms part of a new sustainable forest management policy, which also commits the company to work with green groups to avoid developing forested peatland, expand conservation areas, and resolve conflicts with local communities. April said it had already achieved 70% of its goal to develop conservation areas to match its 480,000 hectare plantations.

“This is a major step in our 15‐year sustainability journey,” said April group president Praveen Singhavi. “This is about elimination of deforestation from our supply chain and builds on our longstanding commitment to conservation. We are delivering on conservation, social and economic benefits for Indonesia and a sustainable future for the company and our customers.”

April’s parent company, the Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) group, has also announced new sustainability policies by all other pulp companies in the group, including an end to deforestation.

The move is the latest in a string of zero-deforestation commitments in the region following the high-profile pledge by Asia Pulp & Paper to end deforestation, and similar promises from some of the biggest palm oil producers in Indonesia, including April’s sister companies Asian Agri and Apical.

It follows a campaign by leading green groups, which accuse logging operators in the region of not doing enough to tackle deforestation and the destruction of peatlands, a large store of carbon. Despite passing a moratorium on clearing tropical forests in 2011, losses in Indonesia have accelerated, propelling the country, home to the third-largest tropical forests in the world, past Brazil in terms of clearances.

Greenpeace welcomed the latest announcement, and confirmed it would suspend its long-running campaign against April to give it and other RGE group companies time to put their new policies into practice. However, Greenpeace added it would be “watching closely to make sure that today’s announcement leads to real change on the ground”.

It also said the Indonesian government should now do more to support communities and progressive companies with forest sector reform.

“President Jokowi [Joko Widodo] promised to stop plantation companies damaging the environment or harming communities,” said Bustar Maitar, head of Greenpeace’s forest campaign in Indonesia. “Yet even though Indonesia’s biggest pulpwood and palm oil companies are moving away from deforestation, the destruction on the ground continues. The government must now act to reform the forest sector so it works for people and the environment.”