JAKARTA — Industrial plantations of trees to make paper and wood pellets are causing widespread and persistent environmental and social violations in Indonesia, despite claims to the contrary by the industry and government, a new report shows.

A coalition of 13 NGOs, including Walhi, Indonesia’s biggest environmental watchdog, looked into the operations of 33 plantation companies and used ground investigations, satellite imagery and community interviews to find repeated violations between 2023 and 2025 across 11 provinces.

Their report details the clearing of natural forests, destruction of peatlands, uncontrolled fires, pollution, encroachment beyond licensed concession areas, and ongoing land conflicts with local communities. The companies in question are all licensed to clear natural forest to plant acacia and eucalyptus, used to make paper and wood pulp, or calliandra and gliricidia, to make wood pellets that are burned to generate energy.

“If a company is still clearing natural forests, it’s undermining efforts to meet carbon neutrality goals, since preserving forests within concessions is key to [those goals],” said Difa Shafira, the forestry lead at the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), part of the NGO coalition.

The coalition presented its findings to the forestry ministry in mid-April, saying it hoped there would be follow-up action, given President Prabowo Subianto’s stated commitment to turning Indonesia’s forests into a net carbon sink.

“Looking at the president’s vision and mission statements, there’s a stated priority to take firm action against polluters,” said Okto Yugo Setiyo, coordinator of Jikalahari, one of the NGOs.

A ministry official acknowledged the input, calling it “very valuable.”

The following is a selection of the key findings from various regions covered in the report:

West Sumatra province

In West Sumatra province, the NGOs found biomass companies PT Biomass Andalan Energi (BAE) and PT Landarmil Putra Wijaya (LPW) bearing down on the rainforest and Indigenous lands of the Mentawai people.

The companies’ concessions are located on Siberut, the largest in the chain of four islands that make up the Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra. Siberut has been designated by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve due to its rich wildlife found nowhere else, having evolved in isolation for at least half a million years.

At least 65% of the animals on the island are thought to be endemic, including four types of primates: the Kloss gibbon (Hylobates klosii), Mentawai macaque (Macaca pagensis), Mentawai leaf monkey (Presbytis potenziani siberu) and pig-tail snub nosed monkey (Nasalis concolor siberu).

This makes the island, about twice the size of London, globally unique and significant.

Siberut is also home to the Indigenous Mentawai people, one of the oldest tribes in Indonesia, who maintain a seminomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

The Mentawai people haven’t given their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) to the biomass concessions, and have opposed the plantations from the beginning, the report notes. In 2016, 52 clans and 12 community groups staged a series of protests, and the following year put out a petition that garnered 200,000 signatures in opposition to BAE’s permit.

Yet despite the protests, the government issued BAE with a forestry license in 2018.

As of early 2025, however, the company had still not carried out any planting or land development activity within its concession; BAE was reportedly unable to pay the forest business license fee.

That alone should be reason enough for the government to revoke BAE’s license, said Rifai Lubis, director of the Citra Mandiri Mentawai Foundation (YCMM), one of the NGOs working on the report.

“We can prevent [impact] because they [BAE] haven’t started operation yet,” he said during the submission of the coalition’s report to the forestry ministry in Jakarta.

According to the report, BAE plans to plant biomass trees like calliandra (Calliandra calothyrsus), gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium) and ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala), which grow quickly and can be cut and processed into wood pellets for energy.

The other company on the island, LPW, is still in the early permitting stage. As of February 2025, it was still defining its concession boundaries and preparing an environmental impact assessment. As such, it hasn’t begun clearing any land yet.

Riau province

In Riau, Indonesia’s pulpwood heartland, the report identified violations linked to 11 companies, many of them suppliers to pulp and paper giant APRIL.

Several companies, including PT Selaras Abadi Utama (SAU) and PT Sumatera Riang Lestari (SRL), both affiliated with APRIL, were found to be clearing natural forest in their concessions. These include areas classified as peat protection zones and restoration priority zones.

APRIL’s main pulpwood subsidiary, PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP), was also found ignoring the company’s reforestation commitment and planting acacia monocultures instead, the report found.

None of the 11 companies had carried out effective restoration, it added.

Another company, PT Balai Kayang Mandiri (BKM), was documented planting acacia outside its legally designated concession area.

Fires were also reported in several concessions, including SRL’s, contributing to haze and emissions.

The report attributed this to inadequate fire prevention and suppression infrastructure on the part of the companies, citing the case of the SRL concession, where there was no watchtower for quick detection of fires.

Some of the companies have also been embroiled in conflicts with local communities, with FPIC procedures generally not followed, the report found.

South Sumatra province

In South Sumatra province, the report investigated concessions held by three companies — PT Musi Hutan Persada (MHP), PT Bumi Andalas Permai (BAP) and PT Bumi Mekar Hijau (BMH) — from June to November 2023.

MHP, affiliated with Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, was found to have 813 hectares (2,009 acres) of burned land and an ongoing land conflict with residents of Gawang Gumilir village.

BAP and BMH, both affiliated with pulpwood giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), were also linked to extensive burned areas. The report identified 6,741 hectares (16,657 acres) of burned areas in BAP’s concession and 143 hectares (353 acres) within peat areas that should have been protected inside BMH’s concession.

When investigators went to BMH’s concession, they found recently planted acacia trees, around 6 months old, in the burned area.

West Kalimantan province

In West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo, the NGO coalition looked at seven concessions from November 2023 to January 2024.

These belong to PT Finnantara Intiga and PT Asia Tani Persada (both linked to APP), PT Mayawana Persada (linked to Sumitomo Forestry), PT Wana Hijau Pesaguan (linked to the Djarum tobacco and banking congolerate), PT Meranti Laksana and PT Meranti Lestari (part of the Meranti Laksana Group), and PT Lahan Cakrawala (linked to Lyman Agro Group).

Key findings include peatland destruction and canal construction by Mayawana Persada, deforestation in post-mining peatland by Asia Tani Persada, land disputes with local communities by Finnantara Intiga, and logging of natural forest by Wana Hijau Pesaguan, Meranti Laksana, Meranti Lestari and Lahan Cakrawala.

Legal and policy violations

These findings reveal that many companies are still failing to comply with government regulations, including by draining and planting on peatlands and failing to restore burned peatlands. Some of these cases could be violations of a 2016 regulation on peatland protection and a 2017 regulation on peatland restoration.

These could lead to various sanctions, said Difa from the environmental law NGO ICEL. Digging drainage canals in protected peatlands can result in suspension or revocation of a company’s licenses, while planting acacia in burned peat areas after 2015 can incur criminal charges, she said.

Another type of violation is planting acacia outside the permitted concession, which was the case in BKM’s concession in Riau. This violates a 2021 regulation on forest use and management, the report noted, and can lead to license suspension and ultimately revocation, Difa said.

Broken promises

The findings also show that companies like APP and APRIL continue to violate their own sustainability pledges, despite having binding policies and international commitments to protect forests, the report alleged.

APP’s 2013 Forest Conservation Policy and APRIL’s 2014 Sustainable Forest Management Policy both commit to halting deforestation and respecting community rights. Yet 15 companies affiliated with APP and APRIL across five provinces were found violating these pledges through continued forest clearance, fires and social conflict.

These activities also violate the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the world’s leading sustainable forestry certifier. Both APRIL and APP used to be members of the FSC, but were disassociated by the certifier in 2013 and 2017 respectively due to ongoing concerns over large-scale deforestation and social conflicts.

The disassociation means neither APRIL nor APP can sell their products as FSC-certified or use the FSC logo.

While both APRIL and APP are currently trying to reengage with FSC through its Remedy Framework, which outlines the necessary actions these companies must undertake to address past harms and align with FSC standards, the ongoing violations cast doubt on their sincerity and capacity for reform, the report said.

Furthermore, such practices could jeopardize their access to the European Union market under the new EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which bans the trading of commodities like palm oil and timber that are associated with deforestation or illegality, the report warns.

Corporate responses

In response to the report, APP questioned the accuracy of third-party data used in the investigation, saying it might not reflect the most recent information and could lead to misunderstandings about the locations and boundaries of its operations.

It also said it’s working to improve supplier due diligence and monitoring systems, including the use of satellite surveillance, peatland management protocols, and community engagement initiatives.

On its reengagement with the FSC, APP said it’s working to resolve conflicts and restore priority peatland and forest areas. However, its reengagement process is currently suspended.

“We remain open to constructive dialogue and collaboration with stakeholders to ensure that our actions contribute meaningfully to both environmental restoration and community wellbeing,” APP told Mongabay in an email.

Okto of the NGO Jikalahari criticized APP’s rebuttal, saying that there’s evidence of the company’s suppliers clearing natural forest.

He cited the case of APP’s supplier, PT Arara Abadi, which together with a local farmer cooperative cleared 376.8 hectares (929 acres) of natural forest in Belantaraya village, Riau, under the community forest scheme.

“The coalition sees APP’s claims about improving supplier due diligence, monitoring, and community engagement as vague and normative — essentially greenwashing aimed at regaining FSC certification and restoring access to global markets,” Okto told Mongabay.

APRIL similarly refuted the allegations raised in the report.

“The facts demonstrate that the report’s findings are erroneous and do not stand up to serious scrutiny. In fact, there has been no violation of Indonesian forestry or environmental regulations, or our own sustainability commitments,” APRIL told Mongabay in an email.

It noted that it’s certified under national standards that require it to record all land disputes and to abide by free, prior and informed consent principles before any operational activities are carried out.

Unlike APP, APRIL responded to each specific claim, including reports of fires, illegal canal construction, and operations in protected peatlands. In the case of SAU, which the report alleges cleared natural forest in Riau province, APRIL said the clearance occurred prior to its deforestation cutoff date of June 2015.

SRL, the other Riau-based company accused of deforestation and also fires, didn’t have any burned areas in its concession, according to the government’s fire detection system, APRIL said. And while it acknowledged canal development in SRL’s concession, it said this occurred in 2016, complying with government regulations.

On the alleged lack of fire monitoring and mitigation facilities, APRIL said SRL’s concession was equipped with CCTV to detect and monitor fires.

It also defended RAPP’s planting of acacia trees on burned peatland that the report said should have been restored, saying the area in question was designated for cultivation in accordance with regulations.

Like APP, APRIL also said it’s still committed to the reengagement process with the FSC.

While APRIL’s remedy process is ongoing, APP’s has been temporarily suspended pending a legal review of its corporate ownership structure.

Okto refuted APRIL’s claim, saying that the evidence collected by Jikalahari proved that APRIL’s suppliers had been violating its sustainability principles on the ground.

A satellite imagery analysis done by Jikalahari from October 2022 shows that areas within SAU’s concession which were previously forested had been entirely cleared by June 2023, and subsequently planted with acacia saplings, he said.

“For us, the responses from APP and APRIL are merely normative and administrative, lacking any real commitment to environmental protection or restoration,” Okto said. “The facts presented in our investigation across 11 provinces clearly reveal forest clearance, peatland destruction, and conflict with Indigenous and local communities — facts that neither company can deny.”

Call for action

The NGO coalition said their findings underline weak law enforcement and flawed policy implementation. They called on the government to enforce existing regulations, revoke noncompliant licenses, and reform forest governance. They also called for revisions to laws that weaken forest protection efforts, such as the 2021 regulation on forest operation, which allows concessions to be held for up to 180 years.

Banner image: Land clearing operations in PT Mayawana Persada’s concession in preparation for industrial-scale pulpwood plantation development, July 2023. Image courtesy of Auriga Nusantara.

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