Indonesia protesters denounce APP’s subsidiaries

Residents in South Sumatra, Indonesia, took three subsidiaries of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) to court over the chronic smoke haze. Their pulpwood concessions are accused of repeatedly causing haze pollution due to fires on their concessions during the dry seasons. 

Twelve South Sumatra residents visited the Palembang District Court on Thursday to register a lawsuit against three companies. They were accompanied by their attorney from the Palembang Legal Aid Foundation and activists of the NGO coalition South Sumatra Haze Plaintiffs (ISSPA). The three companies sued by residents are PT Bumi Mekar Hijau (BMH), PT Bumi Andalas Permai (BAP), and PT Sebangun Bumi Andalas Wood Industries (SBA Wood Industries). All these three companies have been sanctioned and fined in the past for failing to protect their concessions from recurrent forest and land fires,

Ipan Widodo from LBH Palembang, the legal counsel for the company’s plaintiffs, said that his party, together with ISSPA activists, tried to escort the community until the lawsuit was processed in accordance with applicable law.

“We will take legal action together with the victims of companies that cause haze”, said Ipan Widodo from Palembang Legal Aid Foundation. “The community has been silent for a long time facing the adverse effects of smoke from forest and peatland fires.”

Pantau Gambut, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), YLBHI-LBH Palembang, the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), the Public Interest Lawyer Network (PIL-Net) Indonesia, and  Greenpeace Indonesia have promoted the plaintiff.

The community is demanding absolute liability or ‘strict liability’ from legal entities for losses due to pollution or environmental damage committed by these legal entities.

Indonesia’s pulp and paper industry has extensive tree plantations on drained peatlands. Drained and dried peat is an exceptionally high source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through its oxidation (up to 80 tonnes CO2 per hectare per year). When drained, it provides large extensions of fuel that make fires uncontrollable. As peatland burns with low oxygen levels, it leads to thick haze formation. Consequently, the development of large- scale pulpwood plantations has become the major driver of fires and led to haze episodes of disastrous proportions.

The peatland fires that occurred in the defendants’ concession areas contributed significantly to the haze in Palembang in 2015, 2019, and 2023. The burned area in the defendants’ concessions from 2015 to 2020 was 254,787 hectares.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial, and ABN Amro are among APP’s largest financiers. None of them has a strong policy that prohibits the financing of deforestation or rights violations”