Press Release

For immediate release

27 July 2009

Fires in APP/Sinar Mas Concessions Add to Region’sHaze Woes, Threaten New UN Biosphere Reserve
Pekanbaru – Satellite data for the first six months of 2009 show that Riau Province had the largest
number of fire “hotspots” in Indonesia: 4,782. And nearly one-quarter of the Riau fires happened
within concessions affiliated with Sinar Mas Group’s Asia Pulp & Paper company, more than in any
other single company’s concessions, an Eyes on the Forest analysis found.
Forest and peat fires are raging across numerous concessions in central Sumatra associated with
APP/SMG, adding to regional haze problems and global climate change and destroying species-richforests in the newly declared UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Riau Province.
Forest and peat fires are a major threat to Indonesia’s public health, biodiversity, regional economy
and global climate. They are often deliberately set as a quick and easy way to clear land after
clear-cutting natural forest and before establishing plantations. El Niño this year is expected tocause much worse forest and land fires than the past two years, with the peak between Septemberand October.
In May this year, APP/SMG touted as a conservation achievement the designation of the Giam Siak
Kecil-Bukit Batu forest (GSK-BB) as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. However, 20 percent of all fire
hotspots in Riau for the first half of 2009 occurred inside the original GSK forest block and half ofthem occurred inside APP/SMG-associated concessions, according to Eyes on the Forest. MODIS
satellite data shows that 22 percent of Riau’s hotspots are burning in the biosphere reserve andother APP/SMG-connected concessions.
“APP/SMG and their associated companies should take seriously their legal responsibility as
license holders to prevent such fires in their concessions, regardless of whether the fires arecaused by themselves or others,” said Susanto Kurniawan of Jikalahari. “We also call on APP/SMG
to stop building new roads through or next to natural forest, digging peat drainage canals andclearing any more natural peatland forest. All of that facilitates fires.”“Whether through fires, draining or forest clearance in its wood-sourcing concessions, APP/SMG isthe single biggest contributor to the destruction of natural forest and peat soil in the original
ecosystem where the Biosphere Reserve was established. Between 1996 and 2007, APP had
pulped 177,000 hectares – 65 percent of all natural forest lost in the ecosystem,” said Nursamsu ofWWF-Indonesia.
“These forests were cleared sometimes without proper licenses and sometimes even insideprovincial protection areas,” said Hariansyah Usman of Walhi Riau. “In addition, they also
sometimes violated Presidential Decree Number 32 Year 1990, which prohibits clearance of naturalforest on peat soil deeper than 3 meters. APP/SMG still continues this kind of legally questionable
forest clearance elsewhere in Sumatra. We call on the government to reopen the findings of therecently terminated illegal logging investigation properly, instead of closing the case. We also call on
the government to take legal action against companies which set fires.”
Biosphere reserves are conservation designations created to protect the biological and cultural
diversity of a region while promoting sustainable economic development. Today, just 35 percent of1

the 700,000-hectare UNESCO Biosphere Reserve is natural forest; the rest is dominated by acacia
monoculture plantation with very low conservation values.
“We hope that the biosphere reserve’s natural forest will remain and that the health of the peat
ecosystem of the reserve will recover. For that to happen, APP needs to provide real security to thearea and conduct responsible hydrological management of the peat. The recent fire hotspot map
clearly shows that the company does not. It is time for them to live up to their own PR,” said SusantoKurniawan.
Recently, APP has been under international scrutiny for its destruction of natural forest in the Bukit
Tigapuluh landscape in Central Sumatra. Around 450,000 hectares of remaining contiguous naturalforest in the area is home to the world’s only successfully reintroduced Sumatran orangutan
population, a quarter of the remaining wild population of critically endangered Sumatran tigers andan important population of endangered Sumatran elephants. Two indigenous tribes, the Talang
Mamak and Orang Rimba, also depend on this forest for their livelihood and home. APP/SMG has
plans to clear up to 200,000 hectares of this forest if the Ministry of Forestry allows it.
This year, around 100 hotspots have been noted in Bukit Tigapuluh, indicating areas where naturalforest had been cleared recently. Many of them occurred along a new logging highway throughnatural forest, which APP/SMG built in 2008 to transport timber to its two giant pulp mills in Riau andJambi provinces. As new as it is, the logging highway has already brought illegal logging andencroachment to the natural forest, threatening the lives of wildlife and indigenous people.
Every year, forest and land fires in Riau and Jambi cause significant transboundary haze across theregion. This year, major outbreaks of fires started in January and May, causing significant increasein the number of people with upper respiratory syndrome and forcing schools and airports closureand flight delays.
###NOTES TO EDITORS:• Eyes on the Forest is a coalition of WWF-Indonesia, Jikalahari and Walhi Riau. Past reports onAPP are published at www.eyesontheforest.or.id.
• Fire hotspot data used are from NASA/University of Maryland (2002) MODIS Hotspot / Active
Fire Detections. Data set. MODIS Rapid Response Project, NASA/GSFC [producer], Universityof Maryland, Fire Information for Resource Management System [distributors]. Available on-line
at http://maps.geog.umd.edu.
• Fire hotspot analysis for GSK and BTp were done within the original natural forest boundary inthe year when APP/SMG and associated companies started to clear natural forest in these areas.
APP/SMG associated companies started to clear natural forest in GSK and BTP in 1996 and2000, respectively.
• The GSK forest has been shrinking ever since APP’s first commitment in 2004 to protect it.
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accredited certification body SmartWood, hired by APP tomonitor its protection of this forest, cancelled the contract in 2008 when it found that APP had
taken no steps to protect the forest – both from themselves and from others.
http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/forestry/documents/app.pdf.
• On APP’s activities in Bukit Tigapuluh area, see:
http://eyesontheforest.or.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=233&Itemid=6
For further information please contact:- Afdhal Mahyuddin, EoF Editor; mobile phone: +62-813-8976-8248- Hariansyah Usman, WALHI Riau; mobile phone: +62-812-7669-9967- Susanto Kurniawan, Jikalahari; mobile phone: +62-812-763-1775- Nursamsu, WWF Indonesia, in Riau; mobile phone: +62-812-753-7317

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Maps and Data to Accompany Eyes on the Forest’s Press Release

Map 1.—Fire hotspots in Giam Siak Kecil (GSK) area between 1 January 2005 and 30 June 2009.
In total 950 hotspots were counted in areas where there used to be natural forest in 1996 in GSK(pink and green area).

Table 1.—Fire hotspots in Giam Siak Kecil (GSK) area between 1 January 2005 and 30 June 2009.
In total 950 hotspots were counted in areas where there had been natural forest in 1996 in GSK(pink area), and they were divided into those inside APP/SMG associated concessions, protectedareas and other areas (see Map 1).

APP/SMGassociatedconcession
Protected
areas
Other
Total

326

Jan
241

Feb
148

Mar
52009
Apr
13

May
19

Jun52

Total
478

53%

52%

61%

59% 100%

76%

23%

26%

50%

112%
206
44%

254%
278
44%

40
10%
111
28%

135%
9036%

424%
00%

44
52%
2125%

49
24%
10050%

150
16%
322
34%

2005

2006

2007

2008

4,192

751

24670%74%

280%
1,807
30%

71%
257
25%

6,027

463
629
392
251
51784
201
950
1,015
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

100%

00%
00%

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Map 2.—2009 fire hotspots in Bukit Tigapuluh area. Many of the hotspots occur along the APP/SMG
logging road through this natural forest.

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