4.3.2. Soil and water

As the forest cover is removed, the surface litter and topsoil come under high stress. Without their protective cover, they are washed away by rains, depleting the soil, disturbing the biological activity and polluting the surrounding waters. The fast growth cycles of the plantations have similarly dramatic results for the ecosystem.

APRIL's plantations, for example, are to be logged at intervals of less than ten years (the cycle has been estimated as being 7-8 years), which subjects the topsoil to the lashing rain. Even when they are fully grown, the plantations are not able to provide the same kind of protective cover as the naturally grown forests, as there is no undergrowth, making the way free for the rain to wash away the nutrients (Carrere et al., 1996).

Hence, the acacia plantations such as APRIL's in Riau, look as if they were growing on barren sand. All life-sustaining topsoil has been washed away and there is no undergrowth worth mentioning. In clear-cut areas, the ground is covered by a muddy sludge of residual decaying biomass and topsoil, but in the plantations there is no trace of the original humus layer. After several years, a new humus layer and some undergrowth will develop, but most of will be washed away when the trees are logged.

The review of APRIL's plantations carried out by the certifying company SGS found serious shortcomings in the protection of soil and water. For example, no protective measures have been undertaken to avoid the muddying of the water by the construction of roads nor is there usually any protective barrier protecting the bodies of water and where there is, it is usually insufficient. Proper inventories and assessments have not been carried out nor is there a monitoring system in place (SGS, 1998).

The large-scale drying and logging of swamp forests will locally increase the load to the water system dramatically. The drying inevitably leads to large-scale washing out of the humus into the surrounding waters systems, which leads to a turbidity of the waters and a deterioration of the water quality, as has happened in Finland in similar schemes. This has also not been taken into account in the environmental assessment of the plantations (SGS, 1998).

As the concession areas in Riau are in lowland areas, the washing out of the topsoil is less dramatic than in highland changing areas. APRIL's other plant, Indorayon in North Sumatra, lies on a watershed area, and its activities have led to serious erosion problems as well. The roads built by Indorayon and its loggings have led to landslides that have damaged tens of villages. The most destructive of these was the landslide in the village of Bulu Silape in 1989 which caused the deaths of 13 villagers and destroyed 30 ha of rice paddies (WALHI et al., 1992).

Numerous factories of the Raja Garuda Mas group have been blacklisted by the environmental authorities due to their pollution problems. The Indorayon case is one of the most well-known in Indonesia, but also RGM's other plants in Riau have been suspected of having polluted the water. In 1995, Indonesia's environmental minister Sarwono Kusumaatmaja ranked APRIL's sister company PT RGM Panel as one of the five worst in the country in terms of its hazardous waste management (JP, Dec. 30, 1995).

According the Riauan NGO HIPALHI, the wastewater released by the RAPP plant into the Kampar river has a higher temperature and a higher pH than the surrounding water and may contain hazardous substances. The villagers living along the Kampar have complained of increased skin and intestinal problems and of dead fish floating in the river. The fish are a main source of nutrition, the loss of which has hit the villagers badly.

The villagers have taken to demonstrating against the pollution caused by the factory but have had to back down time and again as they have had to face the army (SKEPHI, 1998; FAKTA, Nov.15, 1995).