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| April 19, 2006 Fact sheet on Kampar peninsula and paper industry Kampar peninsula is situated in the province of Riau, east coast of central Sumatra in Indonesia. It is delimited by sea in the north and east, by Kampar River in the south and advancing plantations in the west. The peninsula is covered with peat swamp forests – a special type of rainforest growing on an accumulating, water-logged peat soil up to 15 meters thick. Forests of the peninsula cover 440 000 ha, which is 63% of their original extent.
Half of world’s tropical peat swamps are located in Indonesia. Here, the largest area of peat swamps are found in Sumatra, where peat swamp forests once covered over 8 million hectares. Kampar peninsula is the largest remaining, intact forest area left of this once continuous area. Unlike many other remaining peat swamp areas, it is still hydrologically viable. Together with adjacent Kerumutan peat swamp, they comprise the second largest peat swamp forest in the world after Papua in East Indonesia with an area close to one million hectares. Kampar peninsula is home to such endangered animals as Sumatran Tiger, Clouded Leopard and Wallece’s Hawk-Eagle, and such trees found only in peat swamps as critically endangered Shorea platycarpa and overexploited ramin (Gonystylus bancanus). Several communities living in the area, like indigenous akit people, depend on the forest and rivers for their survival. The forest has been logged selectively in parts, and illegal logging is still going on. Yet the most alarming threat to the area are expanding pulp plantations, in particular development plans of the pulp and paper producer APRIL. The company is pushing for 160 000 ha of the area to be handed to it for clearfelling and replacement with pulp plantations. APRIL and its rival Asia Pulp and Paper both have a destructive history in the Kampar peninsula area. During the last five years 21% of the peninsula has been deforested mostly as a result of activities of these two companies. APRIL alone has cleared and drained 50 000 ha of peat swamp in the western part of Kampar peninsula, in the concession sector Pelalawan. It has also built a road through the remaining forest area, without due prior environmental impact assessment, causing illegal logging, fires and disturbing water balance of the surrounding peat swamp up to 10 km from the road. ProForest, consultant hired by APRIL, concluded in its report that current water management practices in the existing plantations of APRIL are poorly planned, clearly unsustainable and cause major havoc for the remaining peat swamp ecosystem. The
peat soil makes peat swamp forests ecologically fragile and difficult
if not impossible to cultivate in the long term. Areas with peat thickness
over 3 meters are protected by Indonesian law, but large areas have been
converted to cultivations or barren land despite this, including parts
of APRIL’s and APP’s plantations. Forests of Kampar peninsula
are almost totally growing on peat soils deeper than 6 meters. In the
provincial land use plan the area is designated as a protection forest.
In 2005, Jikalahari, Network for Forest Conservation in Riau, proposed
the whole remaining forested area as a national park. APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd.) is a pulp and paper producer registered in Singapore that operates an integrated pulp and paper mill (PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper, RAPP) with an annual pulp producing capacity of 2 million tons in Riau Province, Indonesia. The company sources its material from its acacia plantations and for the large part by clearcutting rainforests in Riau. After it started operating in 1995 it has directly contributed to destruction of well over 400 000 ha of rainforests through its wood sourcing and plantation replacing forests. In 2006 APRIL received a LEI timber certificate for part of its plantations. Environmental organisations in Riau, including WALHI and Jikalahari, have challenged the certification, since land disputes related to APRIL’s plantations have not been resolved properly and certification process has been inadequate. >>>
Back to the press release Resources Eyes
on the Forest by Jikalahari, WALHI and WWF Indonesia – www.eyesontheforest.or.id References (1) WWF Indonesia 2006: Overview of the status of natural forests in Kuala Kampar, Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia: Proposed expansion of the peninsula’s existing conservation areas. - Submitted to the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry on 7 February 2006. (2) Hooijer, A. 2005: Hydrological assessment of forest plantation impacts on tropical forested peatlands; Kampar Peninsula, Sumatra, Indonesia – Technical Report Q3975, WL | Delft Hydraulics. (3) Rieley, J.O. & Page, S. E. 2005: Wise Use of Tropical Peatlands: Focus on Southeast Asia - Alterra, Wageningen. 266 p. (4) Stibig H-J., Beuchle, R, and Janvier, P. 2002. Forest cover map of insular Southeast Asia at 1:5 500 000. TREES Publications Series D: Nº3, EUR 20129 EN, European Commission, Luxemburg. (4) ProForest 2005: Landscape-Level assessment of hydrological & ecological values in the Kampar Peninsular. A study to provide a context for HCVF assessment and management at a concession level. December 2005. (5) Jikalahari's field research 2005, English summary at http://www.maanystavat.fi/april/expansion/jikalahari.htm (6) Keppres 32/1990, PP 47/1997 |
