This presentation by Petrus Gunarso from APRIL given during the Forests Asia Summit in the learning event "Fire and haze in Southeast Asian landscapes" introduces APRIL's no burning policy, describes the conflicts due to land use legal uncertainty and explains the strategy APRIL uses to deal with those.

1. FIRE AND CONFLICTS
1
PETRUS GUNARSO PhD
Sustainability Director
FORESTS ASIA SUMMIT
Sangrilla Hotel, Jakarta, 5-6 May 2014

2. Outline
• Introduction: underlying causes
• APRIL’s No-Burn Policy
• Conflicts due to land use
• Conflicts due to legal uncertainty
• Strategy and Collaboration
• Recommendation
• Self protection: Eco-Hydro Water
Management

3. Introduction
The multifaceted causes of fire and
haze in the province of Riau
• Economic reasons
• Governance issues
• Biophysical characteristics of the
region
• Social and population issues

4. No Burn Policy
• Since our inception, we implement no burn policy
• Burning forests is equivalent to burning our raw materials.
Burnt land/trees damages our assets and reduces our
commercial return.
• Burning forest reduces/eliminates the biomass in the land
which leads to loss of nutrients, affects sustainable
plantation development.
• It’s also why we act fast to detect and extinguish fires in our
concessions and near our concessions
• Wood - fibre from trees is the central raw material in the
pulp and paper business
• We are the ‘victim’ of forest fires, with losses in the millions
of dollars.

5. Conflicting Rule
Burning forests is allowed for traditional use (Law 32
article 69).
• Maximum of 2 hectares per household for planting
local species with proper fire break.
• Oil palm is not a traditional and local species
exempted by this law, but who control such practice
on the ground? Oil palm is ‘crop-darling’ in Riau!
• Massive fire fights often happen after the fires are out
of control – therefore more expensive; but from
funding - it is attract national government to declare it
as a national disaster status – and national budget
can then be released – based on that status.

6. Conflicting Rules
• Law 32, 2009 on Protection and Management of
Environment
• Article 69: Anyone is prohibited to:
– 1. h. open land with burning
• The above item (1.h) has to consider the existence of local
wisdom in respected region.
The clarification for local wisdom is follows:
• Article 2: The meaning of local wisdom in this article means
to allow burning up to maximum of 2 ha per household to
open land with burning to be planted with local variety
(species) and surrounded by proper fire break to protect
from spreading to surrounding environment.

7. Fire Started by Others
Meranti – Puskopol

8. Fire Started by Others
Photos of land clearing activities for palm oil by local community, around
the border of HTR in Kerinci

9. Unmanaged area – burnt annually

10. COLLABORATION AS A SOLUTION
Short Term Solutions:
1.Fire Fighting
Working with Indonesia’s National Disaster Agency (BNBP),
Agency for REDD+ (Badan REDD+), Local Fire Fighters
(Manggala Agni); and trained local community (masyarakat peduli
api).
2.Reporting on fires near our concessions
Done beyond call of duty – while patrolling our own area – we also
report all fires happening in the vicinity of our concession and often
we send fire squads to help to fight the fire.
We also have ‘fire operation room’; download hotspot data, share on
our fire tracker blogs, and implement ‘fire danger rating system’ in all
estates.

11. COLLABORATION AS A SOLUTION
Long Term:
1.Legality and Licensing
• Indonesian government - coordination and support needed due to land
tenure issues
• Land boundary demarcation of operable areas viz a viz community land
• Dispute resolution process for overlapping land claims
• Enforcement for land burning
2. Engage with national and international institutions
concern about forest and land fires
3.Understanding real situation on the ground through
study
• PhD n Masters students in collaboration with Centre for International
Forestry Research – CIFOR
4.Provide alternatives to land clearing
• Sustainable development to create livelihoods and jobs
• Multi-stakeholder private-public-partnership initiative.

12. RECOMMENDATION
• To national government: finalize spatial land use
plan immediately to increase certainty of land
use.
• To local government: allocate funding for fire
prevention and disburse funding even when no
big fires start.
• To villagers: implement reward and punishment
for villages with or without fire – involving
independent stakeholder monitoring committee.
• To company: provide capacity building and
support for no burn farming practice.

13. APRIL’s Sustainable Forest Management Policy (APRIL SFMP)
I. Long-term Sustainability
• APRIL to complete plantation establishment by end of 2014
• To supply mill entirely from APRIL’s sustainable plantations by 2019. Commitment to receive fiber
only from non-HCVF areas, which are assessed by 3rd party independent assessors
• No new pulp mill until plantation fiber self-sufficiency
II. Forest Protection and Conservation
• APRIL to continue protecting and managing High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) areas
• APRIL to double the size of its Eco Restoration Programs. Rehabilitate degraded forest areas
• APRIL to support forest conservation area equal in size to its plantation area (1:1), first company to
do so
• APRIL to adopt HCS when industry standard is established
III. Peatland Management
• Immediate Moratorium in all new areas, including peatland, without HCVF assessment
IV. Legal Compliance and Certification
• APRIL to go beyond legal compliance and pursue global forest management certifications (ie. PEFC,
FSC)
V. Community Engagement and Social Responsibility
• APRIL to continue its Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) principles
VI. Good Corporate Governance and Transparency
• Independent Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) to oversee implementation of SFMP

14. Eco-Hydro
Hydro buffer zones to manage water table.
Water control dams to
optimize the water level
height and minimize carbon
emission

15. Thank You