Posted on July, 10 2015

EoF News (JAKARTA) – Eyes on the Forest says APRIL unable to provide evidence that PT Adindo Hutani Lestari (AHL) in North Kalimantan, an APRIL timber supplier, did not clear natural forest after 15 May, the day when APRIL pledged to halt its forest clearing in its modified Sustainable Forest Management Policy. EoF hadreported this moratorium violation on 22 June.

“We do not understand why APRIL published this consultant report now. The data are inconclusive and its value as a moratorium baseline land cover map is questionable,” said Aditya Bayunanda from WWF-Indonesia. “APRIL still does not know where their forest was on the day of the moratorium.”

APRIL’s consultant Hatfield stated in the report that the “overall accuracy assessment of the land cover map is 54%” and that the “classification does not clearly differentiate between standing trees and felled areas, where felled areas are those where trees have been chainsaw cut and remain on the ground with intact crown along with existing scrub and undergrowth”.

“It appears APRIL still is unable to implement its policy properly,” said Kamiruddin from Gapeta Borneo who worked in North Kalimantan and found breaches by PT AHL in 2014 and this year. “We hope that APRIL and PT AHL this time really deliver on their promise to stop forest clearing and any operation in peatlands, and immediately start the missing HCS assessments and review of the HCVF assessment report by the HCV-RN.”

EoF and Gapeta Borneo are prepared to join APRIL’s promised analysis of high resolution RapidEye imagery of the disputed area and the moratorium baseline map by Hatfield as soon as they are available.