Advisory to Buyers and Investors ofRoyal Golden Eagle / Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (RGE/APRIL)
WWF-Indonesia
31 January 2014
On 28 January, the Royal Golden Eagle Group’s (RGE) APRIL announced a Sustainable Forest Management
Policy (SFMP)i, ii.
WWF cautiously welcomed APRIL's announcement.
WWF and many other NGOs have long criticized the RGE Group and APRIL for the devastating impact theiroperations have on Indonesia's rainforests, peatlands, species and local communitiesiii. APRIL has a long
history of making commitments that it has failed to live up to. The company promised several times in thepast to use plantation fibre only, each time moving the date years ahead. This most recent announcement
pushes the deadline from an original 2009iv to 2019.
The SFMP seems to demonstrate willingness by APRIL to now improve its practices and transparency. But
it needs to be clarified to give stakeholders confidence. It also needs to go further. It will be critical how
APRIL actually implements this policy in practice.
WWF is still reviewing the policy to understand its full implications. But, WWF is encouraged by APRIL'scommitments to not source fibre from forests before HCV Network peer-reviewed assessments arecompleted, to “strive to support conservation areas equal in size to APRIL’s plantation areas”, not toestablish a new pulp mill and/or a new pulp line until it achieves plantation fibre self-sufficiency; and toestablish a Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) that will appoint an independent verification auditor
and oversee monitoring and verification of the policy implementation.
But the policy needs to be strengthened and clearly defined. Most notably, the company should
1. extend its commitment to the rest of the RGE Group companies to include all the group’s mills inIndonesia, China and Brazil in the deal and make sure that no chips from global supplierconcessions that are not compliant with the policy are received by those mills and to preclude
having APRIL’s shareholders open new mills in new corporate configurations that do not fallunder this policy,
2. clarify that it will immediately start a moratorium on all forest and land clearance and peatland
development activities in all its supplier concessions, until independent High Conservation Value(HCV) as well as High Carbon Stock (HCS) assessments are finalized as recommended by NGOs;
3. clarify that the moratorium applies to all concession areas where HCV assessments had been
completed but were challenged by civil society so the HCV assessments can be updated and peerreviewed by the HCV Resource Network,
4. become a 100% plantation fibre company in 2014 since without robust processes andindependent monitoring HCV and HCS area fibre could continue to leak into the pulp mills,
5. make all the group’s suppliers’ concession holdings and their wood supply plans publicly availablefor independent review so the impact of this policy can be judged,
6. fully commit to a 1 to 1 conservation compensation,
7. immediately invite key stakeholders to meet with a view to improve the policy and discuss its
implementation and monitoring, and
8. ensure that the SAC becomes a credible and independent group to continuously engage thecompany in strengthening and effective implementation of its policy.
WWF continues to recommend that companies wait and see before sourcing from and investing in APRIL
and their associated business entities, until APRIL/RGE improves the policy, independent 3rd party
confirmation that the group has stopped draining peat soils and developing and pulping HCV and HCS
areas, and long-standing social issues have been resolved. WWF also urges RGE and APRIL to comply withmilestones similar to those developed by the Environmental Paper Network released last September,which can be found here: www.environmentalpaper.org/milestones.
WWF, together with local NGOs in the Eyes on the Forest and RPHK coalitions will continue monitoring
the company’s operation.
Any questions, feel free to contact:
Aditya Bayunanda, abayunanda@wwf.or.id
Nur Maliki Arifiandi, nmarifiandi@wwf.or.id

i

APRIL (28 January 2014) APRIL takes its Sustainable Forest Management Policy to a new level.
http://aprilasia.com/news/Press%20release%20Sustainability%20Policy.pdf
ii

ARPRIL (28 January 2014) APRIL’s Sustainable Forest Management Policy.
http://aprilasia.com/news/APRIL%20SFM%20POLICY.pdf
iii

iv

See reports collected at http://www.eyesontheforest.or.id

APRIL (2004) Sustainability Report 2004. http://aprilasia.com/sr/media/reports/sustainabilityreport-2004.pdf