APP under the spotlight as another company found replanting burned peatlands

After revealing how a subsidiary of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), PT BAP, carried out land preparation and the replanting of acacia in last year’s burned peatlands, Indonesia’s Ministry of the Environment and Forestry has also now demonstrated that another APP company, PT BMH, whose concession is located adjacent to PT BAP’s, also conducted the same practices, which have been prohibited by the government since mid-December last year.
Both these APP pulpwood concessions are situated in the regency of Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI), which is one of the peat restoration priority regencies designated by President Joko Widodo in January this year in a bid to accelerate the restoration of peatlands in the wake of last year’s serious and widespread fires.
“The results of the ground-check at PT BMH once again show that seemingly there were no peat restoration efforts made in this concession, just like with PT BAP. These two APP companies continue to carry out their business-as-usual practices in burned peatlands,” explained San Afri Awang, the Director General of Forestry Planology and Environmental Governance to Foresthints.news at a gathering called to expose the exploitative practices of the APP companies in burned peatlands at the ministry complex.