Plantations, poverty and power - Critical Information Collective

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59 logging. While the investigation is long overdue, APP simply expanded its logging operations in Jambi province, cutting 50,000 hectares of Bukit Tigapuluh Forest. WWF Indonesia notes that “some of the clearing seems to be in violation of Indonesian law”. Part of the area cleared is a proposed Specific Protected Area. The forest is habitat to Sumatran orangutans, tigers and elephants. The forest is also home to two tribes of Indigenous Peoples, one of which is found nowhere else in Sumatra. APP has plans to build a new road through the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest, to facilitate transport of timber to its pulp mills. 293 Pollution and pulp production As well as destroying forests, APP has polluted the Siak River. Indah Kiat started its first pulp mill at Perawang in 1984, with an outdated factory imported from Taiwan. The 100,000 tonnes a year pulp mill used elemental chlorine and wastes were discharged into the Siak River. Protests from local villagers led to an agreement in 1992, mediated by Indonesia’s Environmental Impact Management Agency, BAPEDAL, under which Indah Kiat agreed to meet the villagers’ demands. The company, however, failed to do so. Indah Kiat’s pulp and paper mills have expanded to cover an area of 400 hectares and now use a mixture of chlorine and elemental chlorine free bleaching. 294 Six years ago, German film-maker Inge Altermeier visited Indah Kiat to produce a film about the impacts of pulp production on local communities. She found and filmed an illegal outlet from Indah Kiat’s mill, which the company used at night. During the day the output was not in use, but the air stank and dead fish floated in the river. In a village near Indah Kiat’s mill, people complained about the bad smell and told the film-maker that they were suffering from itching, headaches and vomiting. A villager called Tasjudin showed Altemeier his garden. Since Indah Kiat arrived, there are no more coconuts on his trees. The fruit on his trees is covered in black spots and it rots before it ripens. “Indah Kiat is ruining our lives. But what am I to do This is my home, I have to live here,” Tasjudin said. Before Indah Kiat built its pulp mill, people could fish in the Siak River. They used the river for drinking water and for bathing in. Since villagers can no longer drink from the river, they demanded that Indah Kiat provide them with clean water. The company gave them a water pump. But villagers found that the ground water was also polluted and smelled bad. Villagers are forced to buy bottled water to drink. Many still wash in the river because there is not enough pumped water especially in the dry season. 295 In 2005, Rully Syumanda, Forest Campaigner with WALHI, and Rivani Noor, from the Community Alliance for Pulp Paper Advocacy, interviewed people in villages near to Indah Kiat’s mill in Perawang. They also spoke to people living in Perawang. Villagers told them their vegetables, chillies and flowers did not grow normally, especially in the dry season. During the rainy season, a many of the villagers’ hens and ducks die. They told the researchers they were sure that the cause was the smoke containing harmful chemicals from Indah Kiat’s mill. 293 “Highway Planned by Paper Giant Asian Pulp and Paper Will Destroy Sumatran Forests, says WWF”, Press Release, 7 January 2008. http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2008/WWFPresitem4905.html 294 Mats Valentin and Kristina Bjurling (2004) “Swedish involvement in the Indonesian paper and pulp industry”, SwedWatch, October 2004. 295 Chris Lang (2005) “Indonesia: The health impacts of living near Indah Kiat’s pulp and paper mills”, World Rainforest Movement Bulletin 97, August 2005. http://chrislang.org/2005/08/27/indonesia-the-health-impacts-of-livingnear-indah-kiats-pulp-and-paper-mills/
60 From 1987 to 1996, the air smelled very bad, villagers said. It has improved since Indah Kiat installed a filtering system on factory chimneys. But the air is still polluted and still causes respiratory problems, especially for visitors. Villagers told Syumanda and Noor that before the mill started operations, fishers could catch 40 to 50 kilogrammes of fish a day in the Siak River. Today, they are lucky to catch four or five kilogrammes. Sometimes, they said, the river smells really bad and they cannot catch anything. Every month, the river gives off a bad smell for a week. 296 APP’s monoculture tree plantations APP’s Indah Kiat pulp mill gets its raw material mainly from Arara Abadi, which is, as mentioned above, also part of the Sinar Mas Group. Arara Abadi has a concession area of just under 300,000 hectares. About 60 per cent of this area was previously covered with forest. By 2003, about 228,000 hectares had been planted with Acacia mangium. Despite the impact of APP’s operations in Sumatra, the company continues to receive support from professional foresters. In 2000, an Australian forester called Stephen Midgley visited Sumatra to look at “some commercial forest plantations”, as he calls Arara Abadi’s industrial monocultures. At the time of his visit to Sumatra, Midgley was Portfolio Manager, Tree Improvement and Genetic Resources Program at the Commonwealth CSIRO. A photograph accompanying his article in the Australian Tree Resources News (published by CSIRO) shows an aerial view of the plantations. The monoculture stretches to the horizon. Midgley’s report of his visit to Sumatra makes no mention of the forests cleared to make way for these plantations. Neither does he mention the impact of the forest clearance and plantations on local people’s livelihoods. Midgley wasn’t in Sumatra to look at forests or talk to people affected. Instead he was interested in one tree species only: Acacia crassicarpa. Arara Abadi has planted about 40,000 hectares with this species. 297 Midgley calculates that Arara Abadi’s 40,000 hectares of Acacia crassicarpa represented an asset worth more than US$1 billion, based on the current world price for kraft pulp. Midgley claims that the plantations are “offering opportunities for employment and economic development for many Indonesians, and industrial opportunities for larger companies”. 298 Six months after Midgley’s visit, APP defaulted on its debts. The “economic development” that Midgley described was little more than a sham. The company frequently overstates the growth rate of its plantations. According to Arara Abadi’s Research and Development Unit the plantations have an annual growth rate of 30-35 cubic metres per hectare. The target is 45 cubic metres per hectare. CIFOR points out that these figures come from 296 Rivani Noor and Rully Syumanda (2006) “Social conflict and environmental disaster: A report on Asia Pulp and Paper’s operations in Sumatra, Indonesia”, World Rainforest Movement, August 2006. http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Indonesia/book8.html 297 Stephen Midgley (2000) “Acacia crassicarpa: a tree in the domestication fast lane”, Australian Tree Research News, Forestry and Forest Products, CSIRO, Number 6, October 2000. Midgley has now set up a consulting firm called Salwood, which recently won a contract with Stora Enso in Laos. Stora Enso aims to plant an area of 35,000 hectares with eucalyptus to feed its operations in China. 298 Stephen Midgley (2000) “Acacia crassicarpa: a tree in the domestication fast lane”, Australian Tree Research News, Forestry and Forest Products, CSIRO, Number 6, October 2000.
Page 2 and 3:
1 Plantations, poverty and power: E
Page 4 and 5:
3 CONTENTS Introduction 1. Plantati
Page 6 and 7:
5 New investors have emerged recent
Page 8 and 9:
7 1. Plantations do not plant thems
Page 10 and 11: 9 plantations established on grassl
Page 12 and 13: 11 Nations Food and Agriculture Org
Page 14 and 15: 13 Another reason for the move to t
Page 16 and 17: 15 In his book, “Khor Jor Kor, Fo
Page 18 and 19: 17 Between 1991 and 2006, the numbe
Page 20 and 21: 19 are asking for”, notes WWF. 60
Page 22 and 23: 21 consume fewer goods. Less advert
Page 24 and 25: 23 credit crunch, unstable oil pric
Page 26 and 27: 25 Investment in plantations in the
Page 28 and 29: 27 possible price. Subsidies, linke
Page 30 and 31: 29 2. The anatomy of five pulp proj
Page 32 and 33: 31 However, while the Bank confirme
Page 34 and 35: 33 make way for its tree plantation
Page 36 and 37: 35 In April 2004, about 2,000 famil
Page 38 and 39: 37 Sappi, Swaziland: 50 years of in
Page 40 and 41: 39 after an assessment by the Soil
Page 42 and 43: 41 impact of the plantations on wat
Page 44 and 45: 43 Advance Agro, Thailand: Deforest
Page 46 and 47: 45 confiscation and liquidation of
Page 48 and 49: 47 management was facing a bankrupt
Page 50 and 51: 49 Indah Kiat, Asia Pulp and Paper,
Page 52 and 53: 51 company owners want profits to b
Page 54 and 55: 53 • US$4.5 billion owed by APP i
Page 56 and 57: 55 explained that “association wi
Page 58 and 59: 57 Indah Kiat faces a series of lan
Page 62 and 63: 61 experimental areas and not from
Page 64 and 65: 63 Staples and Office Depot in the
Page 66 and 67: 65 “the exhaustive studies have c
Page 68 and 69: 67 CEDHA has also filed complaints
Page 70 and 71: 69 of converting grasslands to indu
Page 72 and 73: 71 3. Pulp Inc. Profiles of seven p
Page 74 and 75: 73 Thailand, a power plant for a Ne
Page 76 and 77: 75 Management’s experts the possi
Page 78 and 79: 77 A year after Aracruz’s third p
Page 80 and 81: 79 In January 2003, Pöyry announce
Page 82 and 83: 81 Bank in the early 1990s. Groome
Page 84 and 85: 83 Pöyry’s role in the Baikal Pu
Page 86 and 87: 85 Under carbon financing, Pöyry o
Page 88 and 89: 87 Pöyry is working on second gene
Page 90 and 91: 89 The Confederation of European Pa
Page 92 and 93: 91 CEPI Eurokraft states that “it
Page 94 and 95: 93 sectors need to reduce by 21% co
Page 96 and 97: 95 The ADB’s report notes that th
Page 98 and 99: 97 Nepal In Nepal, the target area
Page 100 and 101: 99 loan for the second plantations
Page 102 and 103: 101 International Finance Corporati
Page 104 and 105: 103 •In December 2000, IFC approv
Page 106 and 107: 105 firm’s activities. After his
Page 108 and 109: 107 safeguards are in practice.
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109 Bank projects are approved by a
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111 •€80 million to Portucel to
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113 The Food and Agriculture Organi
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115 Nevertheless, Poore and Fries n
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117 failure to define industrial tr
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119 FAO’s guidelines recommend th
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121 Rosengren did not reply to my e
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123 Forest Stewardship Council: Mis
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125 body that rubber stamps operati
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127 Criterion 1.6, for example, sta
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129 fast wood plantations have take
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131 Principle 10.8 should prevent t
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133 By April 2004, FSC had, at last
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135 plantations, because it creates
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137 integrated set of common Princi
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139 for clearing areas of Atlantic
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141 Colombia were certified by SGS.
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143 The dissociation became necessa
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145 4. Future planned pulp mills As
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147 Planned pulp projects: 698 Comp
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149 UPM and Sveza Group Vologda Rus
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151 paper industry along ecological
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