Environmental groups have given qualified support to a plan by paper giant Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) that it will support the conservation of one million hectares of Indonesian rainforest.
The company’s plan comes in responds to criticism of its activities in allowing destruction of rainforest but green groups say it won’t stop loggers.
APP, one of the world’s biggest paper companies, is to support the conservation of one million hectares of rainforest in Indonesia, as a way of reducing its impact on the habitats of endangered species such as orang-utan, elephants and tigers.
However, green experts said the plans would be difficult to make work and would not solve the problem of loggers depleting the animals’ natural habitat.
Reuters Newsagency reports the initiative has been developed with input from many stakeholders, including WWF, Greenpeace and NGO members of APP’s Solutions Working Group.
APP’s project will involve creating and protecting “wildlife corridors” for species, allowing them to move between areas without having their habitats cut off by logging activities, and “buffer zones” so that habitats are less encroached on by loggers, in at least nine areas across Indonesia.
The one million hectare figure represents an area roughly equivalent to the area of land the company exploited for sourcing pulp last year alone.
APP has been the target of concerted action by Greenpeace and other conservation charities over its activities, which have included allegedly using an endangered species of tree in its products.
Last year the company responded to the criticism by initiating a “forest conservation policy” that it said resulted in an end to the clearance of “natural” forest in its concessions.
Aida Greenbury, managing director of sustainability at the company, said: “It has become clear that the key to the success of any efforts to halt deforestation in Indonesia is a landscape-level approach to forest restoration and conservation.”
The company did not say how much investment would go into the projects.
Andy Tait, senior campaign advisor at Greenpeace, said the initiative was welcome, but warned that its impact would be limited.
“This commitment is good news and goes a long way towards addressing the deforestation for which the company has previously been responsible.”
Mr Tait pointed to the development of illegal plantations, the setting of fires and many cases in which the licences granted by authorities to exploit areas of forest overlap with conservation areas, as some of the problems holding back progress.
Environmental lobby WWF said it cautiously welcomed the restoration and conservation initiative announced by APP.
It said WWF would continue discussions with APP and other stakeholders to offer input on potential implementation approaches, priorities and development of a time-bound action plan for achieving real conservation impacts.
“WWF and other NGOs have identified the lack of attention to APP’s deforestation legacy as a major shortcoming in the original Forest Conservation Policy,” said Rod Taylor, Director of WWF’s Global Forest Program.
Mr Tait said: “These are among the many urgent governance issues that have to be addressed if conservation initiatives like this are to succeed.”
A campaign by Greenpeace in 2012 alerted some of APP’s large customers to the problems of deforestation and the threat to species from illegal logging.
It resulted in some removing its products from their supply chains and was credited with helping to spur action on the issue.
Green groups are now planning to extend their scrutiny to other large companies engaged in similar activities in the region.
