Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) said earlier this month it would set aside 20 hectares of peat swamp forest for the rehabilitation of the ramin tree species. It’s hard, however, not to be skeptical about this plan given that APP manages at least 2.5 million hectares of land across Indonesia, much of it in areas of peatland which are ramin habitat.

Ramin is an endangered tree species, protected under Indonesian law and on appendix II of CITES, the international conservation agreement. It’s illegal to cut and trade it without a license. It’s a license that APP does not have.

But earlier this year Greenpeace published the findings of a year-long investigation which repeatedly identified illegal ramin logs waiting to be pulped alongside other rainforest logs at APP’s Indah Kiat pulp mill in Sumatra. Continue reading →