Championing Thriving Landscapes as part of our production-protection landscape management approach.

Pledge by APRIL Group

This pledge will take place from 2020 to 2030

Pledge overview

APRIL currently protects and restores approximately 365,000 hectares of forests in Indonesia as part of its commitment to conserve a hectare for every hectare of plantations developed. APRIL pledges to protect and restore an additional 85,000 hectares of high conservation value forest to achieve its 1:1 commitment. This is part of an integrated production-protection approach, where production delivers the financial and technical resources to support the conservation and restoration of important forest areas in Indonesia.

This commitment complements several others as part of APRIL’s Sustainable Forest Management Policy and its APRIL2030 commitments. Under its Thriving Landscapes commitment, APRIL is investing in landscape conservation by pledging to invest US$1 per tonne of fiber supply to the mills into forest conservation and restoration, supported by additional community conservation and restoration opportunities. This results in a fund of at least US$10m annually to support current and future conservation and restoration opportunities in APRIL’s own concessions and in partnership with other conservation initiatives in Indonesia.

This commitment to identify an additional 85,000 hectares of restoration forest to achieve the 1:1 ratio will be achieved by 2030 or earlier, dependent on the identification of an appropriate restoration, collaboration with local communities and compliance with relevant legal and regulatory requirements.

By 2030, we will achieve net zero carbon emissions from our land use, positive measurable gains in nature and zero extreme poverty in our communities, while transforming our business for sustainable growth.

Actions in this pledge

Conserving trees and forest landscapes - >85000 hectares of land

• Permanent conservation
• Conservation support activities

APRIL employs a four-phase model of forest protection, restoration and conservation using a landscape approach.

1) Protecting the landscape – APRIL adopts appropriate protection strategies that include the establishment of a formal guard and patrol function and bespoke community resource management and protection schemes. APRIL works with local community groups to ensure that solutions are practical and effective.

2) Assessing the Ecosystem and the Social Environment - APRIL investigates and assesses the present conditions of the flora, fauna and wildlife habitats, assisted by expert partners. Initial assessments of the area, physical and social environments are also completed to establish a baseline against which future assessments can be benchmarked, and to ensure that communities are part of this process.

3) Restoring Native Plant and Wildlife Species - Once protected and assessed, APRIL carefully restores degraded sites through a process of restocking, using seedlings from surrounding forests. We establish nurseries to cultivate seedlings collected from the wild before carrying out a program of staged replanting. Water level restoration where required will be designed to maintain water levels critical to the health and functioning of the peat forest ecosystems, with continual evaluation of the effectiveness of our efforts.

4) Managing for Sustainability - APRIL develops comprehensive, long-term management plans with our advisory panel of international and local specialists to ensure the sustainability of the restored forest areas. These incorporate consultation with local communities, government and adjacent forest concession license-holders, and are distributed widely for feedback.

Production-Protection Model - A critical element of the APRIL initiative is the adoption and maintenance of an integrated production-protection model, where plantation operations on the perimeter of the restoration area not only provide protection, but actively fund ecosystem restoration and forest protection. Years of experience have shown that this is a reliable and effective economic model for restoration in Indonesia, given the resources that are required for ongoing active management.

Restoring and growing trees and forest landscapes - >10000 hectares of land

• Assisted natural regeneration
• Reforestation
• Agroforestry
• Other restoration and tree growing activities

Achievement of the target involves securing additional restoration licenses and/or partnerships with communities and conservation organizations. APRIL is currently developing a landscape management process and framework which includes a commitment to work with community partners in meeting conservation and restoration opportunities. Further information will be provided in the future.

Enabling activities for trees and forest landscapes

• Nursery and seedling development
• Sustainable forest management
• Market development for sustainable forest products
• Education and capacity building
• Community mobilisation
• Youth engagement
• Data collection, management and technological tools
• Other enabling activities

We are making sure that a significant portion of our landscape is conserved, protected and biodiverse to deliver Thriving Landscapes. A set percentage of revenue from our plantation forests will go towards forest restoration and conservation. This includes expanding conservation and restoration areas outside our own operating footprint and ensuring zero net loss of protected forest area to achieve measurable gains in ecosystem values. Tropical peatland science will be advanced through a new research hub and Eco-Camp within our RER restoration area.

For more details about our commitments for APRIL 2030, please visit https://april2030.aprilasia.com/april2030-indicators/ .

Our ecologically and socially responsible approach

APRIL SFMP (Sustainable Forest Management Framework Policy) 2.0

SBTN/SBTi

Our results tracking

Annual reporting through our independently assured sustainability report and dashboard

Ecological metrics:

• Greenhouse gas emissions –removals and avoided emissions from land use and land use change, measured as the net tCO2e emissions

• USD per delivered plantation fiber tonne per year, measured as USD per tonne fiber

• Net change of conservation and restoration area, measured in hectares

• Area of forest restored to increase potential habitat

• Change in ecosystem services and values over time

• Initiatives undertaken to support the conservation of priority, rare, threatened and endangered flora and fauna, measured by the number of initiatives undertaken

Social metrics:

• Percentage of women participants in APRIL’s community development programs

• Number of women in leadership roles

• No of communities engaged in forest protection and restoration

Our system of accreditation

• Annual third-party assurance of APRIL’s performance of its Sustainable Forest Management Policy commitments

• Annual third-party assurance of the progress on APRIL2030 targets

• Continuing to explore viable and reputable global frameworks to benchmark and verify our conservation and restoration activities

Our partners

• Fauna & Flora international

• Wildlife Conservation Society

• RECOFTC

• Bidara

• Earthworm Foundation

• Local community conservation partners

• In support of Government of Indonesia, specifically the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the provincial conservation agency

Our locations

We are working at locations across Indonesia.

Currently Sumatra, Indonesia; open to exploring other opportunities in East Kalimantan and potentially other parts of Indonesia.

Our implementation progress

Pledge implementation progress reporting is managed in collaboration with IUCN’s Restoration Barometer, and is required annually from the year following pledge publication.

APRIL pledge implementation progress report 2022 (with partial supporting documentation)

APRIL pledge implementation progress dashboard 2023 (not submitted)