Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC)
on APRIL’s Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP)
– Summary Report for SAC Meeting in Pangkalan Kerinci, 08 -10 December 2014 –
| SAC MEMBERS | 1. Joe Lawson (Chair) 2. Al Azhar 3. Budi Wardhana 4. Jeffrey Sayer 5. Peter White |
| TOPICS OF DISCUSSION: | |
| 1. KPMG Specified Auditing Procedures:KPMG Performance Registrar Inc. (KPMG) presented to the Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) members its detailed findings from specified auditing procedures to assess implementation of APRIL’s Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP). The SAC has carefully reviewed the KPMG Report and endorses its findings. The SAC deliberated on KPMG’s findings and issued a list of recommendations to APRIL in relation to its Policy commitments. These were summarized under the following topic headings: – APRIL’s Mixed Hardwood and HCV Sourcing Commitments; – APRIL’s Commitments to Transition to Full Reliance on Plantation Fiber; – APRIL’s Conservation Commitments; – APRIL’s Peatland Management Commitments; – APRIL’s Regulatory compliance and Certification Commitments; – APRIL’s Social Commitments; – APRIL’s Transparency Commitments; – The broader picture, APRIL’s commitments in relation to Royal Golden Eagle Group. The complete SAC Recommendations should be read in conjunction with the KPMG Report. | |
| 2. Forest Protection and Conservation:The SAC commends APRIL’s commitment to match all plantation areas on a 1-to-1 basis with conservation areas and the acquisition of Ecosystem Restoration concessions on the Kampar Peninsula and Pulau Padang, which will provide significant conservation gains. In working towards APRIL’s 1-to-1 commitment, the SAC recommends developing a long-term overall spatial plan for the retention or restoration of natural forest in the entire area of APRIL’s operations. The objective should be to retain landscape-scale conservation areas that are sufficiently large, effectively managed, representative and connected. This will enable greater progress to be made in ensuring the conservation of native biodiversity than the piecemeal HCV approach at present being used. The SAC also commends APRIL’s well-established fire prevention and management program that is necessary to reduce the potential scale of impacts from fire, particularly fire associated with land encroachment. | |
| 3. FPIC and Social Commitment:The SAC recognises the considerable contributions that APRIL has made to the improved livelihoods of many people living in the areas of its operations through creation of employment and improvement of social and physical infrastructure. The SAC noted that APRIL has developed procedures to implement the Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) concepts in new concessions and has had a degree of success in implementing these procedures. However, in some cases, particularly in areas where there are overlapping land-use claims, APRIL is not in a position to successfully resolve these disputes without intervention from the Government. The SAC recognizes that the government agencies concerned with land allocation and land rights have to intervene to solve these problems and encourages APRIL to engage with the BPN and other concerned agencies. | |
| 4. APRIL’s Long Term Fibre Sourcing:The SAC recognizes APRIL’s efforts to initiate a broad range of initiatives to improve the productivity of existing plantations and has set a target of 2019 for self-sufficiency based on the existing plantation footprint. However, the major concern from stakeholders is the continued use of Mixed Hardwood (MHW) sources. The SAC urges APRIL to continue focusing on initiatives to shorten the target before the current 2019 deadline. The future plan for transition to plantation fibre should be more broadly shared. | |
| 5. Pulau Padang:APRIL presented its Key Milestones Updates on SFMP implementation to the SAC members, including a full presentation on the latest situation in Pulau Padang. APRIL explained that the “conservation gain” areas in Pulau Padang had been encroached and burned by local communities, so leaving the areas undeveloped will only lead to additional burning and create potential for future land disputes. The SAC agreed with APRIL’s proposal to form acacia plantation ring-buffer to protect the remaining core of conservation gain areas. The SAC also acknowledged that KPMG had thoroughly investigated and addressed all claims in the initial report by Eyes on the Forest (EoF) in October 2014. KPMG field inspection found one canal was erroneously cut into an HCV area, but no further development was noted. The SAC had scheduled a meeting with EoF on 09 December 2014, but unfortunately EoF was unable to meet the SAC members at the scheduled time. | |
| 6. Kalimantan short-term supplier:Per key stakeholder’s request, SAC suggested for APRIL to encourage its Kalimantan supplier, Adindo, to submit its HCV peer-review report to HCVRN in order to be verified whether the peer-review process by a technical panel member of HCVRN was done properly in accordance to the formal HCVRN procedure. | |
| RECOMMENDATIONS: | |
| The complete SAC Recommendations to APRIL based on KPMG’s Specified Auditing Procedures is available for download here.The SAC recommends that APRIL develop an action plan to address these issues and the more detailed recommendations in this report and report on progress in the next SAC meeting in mid-2015. NOTE: APRIL acknowledged SAC Recommendations and has issued an initial response based on the summary of SAC Recommendations – which is available for download here. | |
| NEXT SAC MEETING:Place: Riau province, Indonesia Time: 26 – 29 May 2015 | |
