Case study: Kerumutan

Peatlands are critical for the climate

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Riau, 2009: Peat swamp forest.
© Kajsa Sjolander / Greenpeace

The province of Riau in Sumatra holds 40% of Indonesia's peatland, perhaps the world's most critical carbon stores and a key defence against climate change. Covering 1.3 million hectares, the Kerumutan Peat Swamp Forest[1] in Riau is one of Indonesia's last remaining areas of extensive peatland. The landscape has been designated a regional priority for the survival of tigers in the wild.[2] Almost all of the area is zoned for clearance for industrial plantation development,[3] chiefly pulpwood and oil palm.[4] Much of it is mapped as on very deep peat.[5]

Whilst APP confirms that 'peatlands deeper than three metres located upstream [...] should be protected against development’ under Indonesian law,[6] within the SMG there are opposing approaches to peatland development.

The SMG palm oil division, GAR, has a policy to 'not develop on land with high carbon stock'.[7] 'Core to this is [...] no development on peat lands.'[8]

By contrast, SMG/APP suppliers continue to clear and drain peatland, including development on deep peatlands. It claims to set aside only those areas that have been determined to be 'natural peat swamp forests of unique and special merit'.[9]

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APP is pulping peat swamp forests

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Riau, 2010: Active clearance of peat swamp forest in PT BDL, an APP linked concession.

SMG/APP is supplied from six concessions in Kerumutan, totalling over 150,000 hectares.[10] Mapping analysis shows that these concessions cover significant areas of deep peat and forested tiger habitat.[11]

Greenpeace has investigated trade of rainforest logs from these concessions to APP's pulp mill PT Indah Kiat in Riau. According to an official Ministry of Forestry document, one of these concessions, PT Bina Duta Laksana, was expected to supply PT Indah Kiat with over 80,000m3 of pulpwood from natural forest clearance in 2009.[12] An investigation by Greenpeace in September 2009 confirmed that rainforest logs from the concession went to PT Indah Kiat.[13]

PT Mutiara Sabuk Khatulistiwa is the forested deep peat concession area to the north of PT Bina Duta Laksana concession. It was identified in confidential 2007 SMG/APP documents as a target supply area, with a size of 45,000 ha.[14] Analysis reveals that 100% of the area is mapped as peatland >3 metres deep, and more than 90% of the area was forested tiger habitat in 2006.[15]

According to Ministry of Forestry records published in 2010, the concession only has a permit for selective logging (HPH), not pulpwood plantation establishment (HTI).[16] Regardless of this, the five-year workplan (2006-2010) for this selective logging concession foresees the clearance of half the area (22,960 hectares), resulting in the production of 590,000m3 of pulpwood.[17] In 2009 the PT Indah Kiat pulp mill was due to receive almost 99,000m3 of rainforest logs from this concession, according to an official Ministry of Forestry document obtained by Greenpeace.[18]

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Greenpeace investigations expose how APP continues to target peatlands

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2010: Satellite analysis of loss of forest cover.

Analysis shows that SMG/APP supply concessions in the Kerumutan Peat Swamp Forest are primarily on areas mapped as >3 metres deep.[19]

PT Bina Duta Laksana is mostly located on peatland mapped as >3 metres deep.[20] Analysis of satellite images[21] of PT Bina Duta Laksana from 2005–2009 show that extensive clearance took place within the concession. The majority of the clearance was on areas mapped as peatland >3 metres deep.

In April 2010, aerial monitoring by Greenpeace documented ongoing peatland clearance of areas mapped as >3 metres deep in the southwest region of PT Bina Duta Laksana.[22] In August 2010, aerial monitoring by Greenpeace documented peatland clearance on areas mapped as >3 metres in the last areas of forest within the western reaches of the concession.[23]

A series of satellite images[24] over the 2005–2011 period reveal extensive clearance within PT Mutiara Sabuk Khatulistiwa, the forested deep peat concession area to the north of PT Bina Duta Laksana concession. The majority of these areas are mapped as peatland >3 metres deep.

In May 2011, aerial monitoring by Greenpeace documented evidence of extensive clearing of rainforest in frontier regions in the far west of the PT Mutiara Sabuk Khatulistiwa concession area. The areas are mapped as peatland >3 metres deep.

APP's most recent policy, delaying until the end of 2015 its commitment to only source plantation fibre,[25] shows its continued dependency on clearance of Indonesia's rainforests and peatlands, including deep peatland.[26]

This contrasts markedly with the policy of SMG palm oil division GAR, which now considers all peatland areas off limits to development, regardless of depth.[27]

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