The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has lifted the suspension of a controversial remedy process for Indonesia firm Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), a decision which environmental campaign groups warn is premature, breaks the eco-certifier’s own policies, and could enable greenwashing on massive scale.
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FSC announced on 14 July that it had removed a pause on a process for assessing how APP should make amends for past environmental and social harms after engaging with stakeholders at a forum on landscape restoration in Jakarta in June.
The remedy process is a crucial first step in order for the Sinar Mas-owned firm to be re-certified by FSC, the world’s best-known ethical wood products label.
APP was stripped of FSC certication in 2007 after revelations of destructive forestry practices, which cost the company an estimated US$300 million in a single year as customers including retailers and supermarket chains Staples, Woolworths and Walmart stopped buying from the firm.
According to estimates from activists, APP has cleared more than 2 million hectares of forest in Sumatra and Kalimantan over its 40-year history, is involved in hundreds of land conflicts with local communities, and has been sued over links to transboundary haze air pollution.
By prematurely resuming the remedy process with APP, the FSC is not just undermining its own standards and credibility — it is enabling a massive greenwash for one of the world’s most destructive forestry companies.
Joint statement from NGOs including Greenpeace, Woods & Wayside International and Auriga
FSC suspended APP’s remedy process in January after it emerged that the Wijaya family, who owns Sinar Mas Group, controls Paper Excellence, a Canadian FSC-certified paper firm now known as Domtar. FSC said this would affect the scope of APP’s remedy obligations, so put the process on hold pending a legal review.
The decision to lift the suspension on APP’s remedy process came after “meaningful exchanges” and a “careful” review that followed the FSC Remedy Forum in Jakarta.
FSC acknowledged that the legal review is still ongoing, but said that regardless of the result of the review, APP will need to remedy for past environmental and social harms.
“Further delaying their implementation of remedy puts rights holders’ access to remedy at risk. It is in the interest of speedy delivery of remedy, at scale, that APP will take its remedy process forward,” it said in the announcement to re-start the remedy process.
APP chief sustainability officer Elim Sritaba told Eco-Business that the potential cost of remedy for the company would not be possible to determine until baseline assessments are made. She predicted that APP could be FSC-certified within two to three years, depending on the baseline.
Preemptive decision flouts FSC’s own policies: NGOs
A collective of 13 non-governmental organisations issued a statement on 24 July to denounce FSC’s decision to re-start the remedy process before it has finished the legal review.
The group, which includes Greenpeace Indonesia, Auriga, and Woods & Wayside International, said the move sidesteps FSC’s own policies and misrepresents the views of local communities affected by APP’s activites.
According to the NGOs, participants at the FSC Remedy Review cited ongoing land conflicts and intimidation by companies under APP’s control and called for improved oversight over the remedy process.
The group called on FSC to conclude its investigation and revoke Domtar’s certificates until APP fulfills its pledge to end deforestation and community exploitation.
APP made a landmark no deforestation, no peat, no exploitation (NDPE) pledge in 2013, although an area the size of New York City has been cleared in APP supplier concessions or companies linked to APP since then, according to NGO investigations.
The collective said that by “rushing” to lift APP’s suspension before a full investigation has concluded into the scope of the current and historical forestry interests of members of the Wijaya family, the FSC “discredits its global certification scheme”.
“It is effectively allowing APP to proceed with its baseline assessments before agreement is reached on the extent of the companies and forestry concessions that must be subject to social and environmental harm assessments,” it said.
In a statement released on 28 July to address concerns from NGOs, FSC said it is actively working with APP to “ensure that affected communities can engage meaningfully and safely in the process, including through the establishment of a formal stakeholder body to guide and monitor its implementation”.
The news emerges in the same month that FSC’s former boss Kim Carstensen was hired by Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), APP’s rival, which is also seeking re-certification after being banned in 2013.
Carstensen’s appointment raised concern among NGOs over a potential conflict of interest, which FSC rejected in a statement on 11 July. Carstensen remains an individual member of FSC, so can vote in electing members to the board of directors and on policy motions.
Conflict of interest at FSC is an ongoing concern for NGOs, which voiced concern over the organisation’s appointment of a legal firm used by Domtar to investigate the same firm’s potential ties to APP.
