APP: Illegal operations on burned peat

The Environment and Forestry Ministry found APP suppliers PT BAP continuing to carry out land preparation and replanting of acacia in last year’s burned peatlands, a few days after the Ministry also found an other APP suppliers, PT WBH doing the same thing, in direct contravention to a ministerial regulation issued in mid-December last year.

As if unaware of the existence of a regulation prohibiting land preparation and the replanting of last year’s burned peatlands in its pulpwood concessions, a subsidiary of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) operating in the province of South Sumatra has been shown to be conducting business-as-usual practices. This is according to a ground-check performed by Indonesia’s Ministry of the Environment and Forestry.

“The ground-check showed that this APP pulpwood company continues to carry out land preparation and replanting of acacia in last year’s burned peatlands. Separately, APP is busy with its own landscape conservation. This is one of the legal factors we took into consideration in rejecting APP’s landscape conservation,” San Afri Awang, the Director General of Forestry Planology and Environmental Governance at the ministry, told foresthints.news.