Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP) has called on WWF International to disassociate itself from a report by Sumatra-based NGO ‘Eyes on the Forest’ (EOF) which contains ‘clearly false’ allegations regarding the company’s operations.
WWF has published and promoted a new EOF report which claims that Asia Pulp & Paper is converting parts of the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary in Sumatra into pulpwood plantation. It published ‘satellite maps’ of the concession operated by APP’s supplier, PT Ruas Utama Jaya (RUJ) which showed the ‘clear cutting (of) tropical forest inside the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary.’ However, it has been proven - through official government maps - that this allegation is totally false.
Asia Pulp & Paper has today published official maps of the concession, which show that the pictures featured prominently in the EOF report are actually from RUJ’s legally-operated pulpwood concession OUTSIDE of the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary.
Recent, independent, third-party auditing1 on the RUJ concession shows that the conservation set aside by the company is actually almost 50% larger than what is required by the Government of Indonesia’s independent High Conservation Value Forest assessments of the area.