Skip to content
  • Home
  • Our Work
    • Our Work
    • Climate
      • Net Zero Carbon
      • Sustainable Finance
    • Sustainability & Circular Economy
      • Sustainable Palm Oil
      • Circular Economy
    • Nature & Biodiversity
      • Illegal Wildlife Trade
      • Marine Conservation
      • Forest Landscape Restoration
    • Closer to Home
      • Future Sustainability Leaders
      • Green Cities
  • About Us
    • About us
    • Chairman & CEO Message
    • Board of Directors
    • Senior Management
    • Whistleblowing Policy
    • Personal Data Protection Policy
    • Work With Us
    • Volunteering
  • Resources
    • Resources
    • Annual Reports
    • News, Reports & Events
  • Partnerships
    • Partnerships
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Government Partnerships
    • Philanthropy
  • Home
  • Our Work
    • Our Work
    • Climate
      • Net Zero Carbon
      • Sustainable Finance
    • Sustainability & Circular Economy
      • Sustainable Palm Oil
      • Circular Economy
    • Nature & Biodiversity
      • Illegal Wildlife Trade
      • Marine Conservation
      • Forest Landscape Restoration
    • Closer to Home
      • Future Sustainability Leaders
      • Green Cities
  • About Us
    • About us
    • Chairman & CEO Message
    • Board of Directors
    • Senior Management
    • Whistleblowing Policy
    • Personal Data Protection Policy
    • Work With Us
    • Volunteering
  • Resources
    • Resources
    • Annual Reports
    • News, Reports & Events
  • Partnerships
    • Partnerships
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Government Partnerships
    • Philanthropy
Menu
  • Support WWF
    • Donate
    • Adopt
    • Fundraiser
  • Support WWF
    • Donate
    • Adopt
    • Fundraiser
  • Home
  • Our Work
    • Our Work
    • Climate
      • Net Zero Carbon
      • Sustainable Finance
    • Sustainability & Circular Economy
      • Sustainable Palm Oil
      • Circular Economy
    • Nature & Biodiversity
      • Illegal Wildlife Trade
      • Marine Conservation
      • Forest Landscape Restoration
    • Closer to Home
      • Future Sustainability Leaders
      • Green Cities
  • About Us
    • About us
    • Chairman & CEO Message
    • Board of Directors
    • Senior Management
    • Whistleblowing Policy
    • Personal Data Protection Policy
    • Work With Us
    • Volunteering
  • Resources
    • Resources
    • Annual Reports
    • News, Reports & Events
  • Partnerships
    • Partnerships
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Government Partnerships
    • Philanthropy
DONATE
ADOPT
SHOP

Building a future in which people live in harmony with nature

Facebook Instagram Youtube Linkedin Twitter

Home » Pulp giant APP set to assault Sumatra orangutan sanctuary

Pulp giant APP set to assault Sumatra orangutan sanctuary

May 18, 2009

Jambi, INDONESIA: A massive logging operation planned by Asian Pulp & Paper and the Sinar Mas Group (APP/SMG) and associated companies is to include large portions of the only areas that Sumatran orangutans have ever successfully been re-introduced into the wild, conservation groups active in Jambi province have learned.

Also threatened in natural forest areas around the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park are a quarter of the last critically endangered Sumatran tigers left in the wild, the Talang Mamak and Orang Rimba indigenous peoples and a significant population of endangered Sumatran elephants.

Conservation groups WARSI, the Sumatran Tiger Conservation and Protection Foundation, the Frankfurt Zoological Society, the Zoological Society of London and WWF-Indonesia learned last week that an APP/SMG joint venture had acquired the largest of the former and inactive ex PT IPA selective logging concessions in the Bukit Tigapuluh forest area – covering the orangutan reintroduction area and areas recording the most frequent sightings of tigers.

The groups have been highly critical of an APP/SMG environmental impact assessment for the neighbouring and also critically important PT Dalek Hutani Esa concession, saying it takes no account of key wildlife and indigenous peoples’ needs and should be rejected.

APP/SMG pushed a legally questionable logging road through both areas last year, opening up access for rampant illegal logging and clearing linked with increased fatalities as tigers are driven into closer contact with humans.

With the latest acquisition, APP/SMG now holds the majority of the buffer areas to the national park , including large areas the Forestry Service of Jambi and the National Park management authority agreed in 2008 to designate as the Bukit Tigapuluh Ecosystem which would be sustainably managed as natural forest.

Less than one third of the 2007 forest cover is within the National Park, with the areas most preferred by animals and indigenous peoples lying in the surrounding lowland forests now vulnerable to clearing.

“It took scientists decades to discover how to successfully reintroduce critically endangered orangutans from captivity into the wild. It could take APP just months to destroy an important part of their new habitat,” said Peter Pratje of the Frankfurt Zoological Society.

“These lowland forests are excellent habitat for orangutans, which is why we got government permission to release them here beginning in 2002. The apes are thriving now, breeding and establishing new family groups.”

Between 1985 and 2007, Sumatra island lost 12 million hectares of natural forest, a 48 percent loss in 22 years, with the accelerating rampage provoking international concern over the loss of biodiversity, smoke hazards from forest fires and peat swamp and soil degradation from clearing that made Indonesia one of the largest sources of the emissions causing climate change.

The Indonesian Ministries of Forestry, Environment, Public Works and Interior, as well as the governors of all 10 Sumatran provinces, including Jambi, announced at the World Conservation Congress in Spain last year that they were committed to protecting areas of the island with “high conservation values.”

The Bukit Tigapuluh landscape is widely regarded as one of Indonesia’s key areas of biodiversity..

“These NGOs are ready to support the Jambi governor to implement his public commitment to protecting Sumatra’s high conservation value areas and halt APP/SMG’s plan and identify alternative financing that would provide money and still save the forests, such as credits in the emerging forest carbon market,” said Ian Kosasih of WWF Indonesia.

“Bukit Tigapuluh’s forest have great potential for earning avoided deforestation credits, due to the high co-benefits of biodiversity and an indigenous community, as well as high avoidable emissions.”

PrevBack to Previous Page
NextNext

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

Pulp giant APP set to assault Sumatra orangutan sanctuary
DOWNLOAD

RELATED LINKS

APP log road challenges pact to save Sumatra

APP’s forest clearing linked to 12 years of human and tiger deaths in Sumatra

APP irregularities threaten massive climate and tiger impact

Illegal logging and road building threatens tigers and tribes of the Heart of Sumatra

SHARE THIS

RELATED ARTICLES

Loading...
May 16, 2025

Add Your Heading Text Here

WWF Earth Summit 2025: Accelerating the Climate–Nature Transition for a Net Positive Future

March 22, 2025

Add Your Heading Text Here

A City Dims, a Nation Shines: WWF Earth Hour Festival at Sentosa Sensoryscape Unites Thousands Across Singapore to Drive Sustained Collaboration for a Nature-Positive Future

March 10, 2025

Add Your Heading Text Here

WWF Earth Hour Festival 2025 at Sentosa Sensoryscape will feature community driven engagement at Singapore’s green connector and empower the public to adopt climate and nature-positive habits for SG60 and beyond

January 23, 2025

Add Your Heading Text Here

Agoda Expands Its Eco Deals Program Pledging Up to $1.5 Million to Fund Critical Conservation Projects Across 10 Asian Markets in Partnership with WWF

Facebook Instagram Youtube Linkedin X-twitter

Help us build a future in which people live in harmony with nature

Contact Us
354 Tanglin Road #02-11, Tanglin Block Tanglin International Centre Singapore 247672

+65 6730 8100

info@wwf.sg

Our Work
  • Climate
  • Sustainability & Circular Economy
  • Nature & Biodiversity
  • Closer to Home
  • Climate
  • Sustainability & Circular Economy
  • Nature & Biodiversity
  • Closer to Home
About Us
  • About us
  • Chairman & CEO’s Note
  • Board of Directors
  • Senior Management
  • Whistleblowing Policy
  • Personal Data Protection Policy
  • Work With Us
  • Volunteering
  • About us
  • Chairman & CEO’s Note
  • Board of Directors
  • Senior Management
  • Whistleblowing Policy
  • Personal Data Protection Policy
  • Work With Us
  • Volunteering
Resources
  • Annual reports
  • News, Reports & Events
  • Blog
  • Annual reports
  • News, Reports & Events
  • Blog
Partnerships
  • Corporate Partnerships
  • Government Partnerships
  • Philanthropy
  • Corporate Partnerships
  • Government Partnerships
  • Philanthropy
Support WWF
  • Donate
  • Adopt
  • Fundraiser
  • Donate
  • Adopt
  • Fundraiser

©️ 2022 WWF – World Wide Fund for Nature (Singapore) Limited (UEN 200602275E) |
©️ 1986 Panda Symbol WWF – World Wide Fund For Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund) | ®️ “WWF” is a WWF Registered Trademark

Eco School Registration

Particulars of Teacher-In-Charge

Preferred days and timings for workshops

(Read more about the workshops on the website)