High Conservation Value and Carbon Stock Assessments for Forest Plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia

Client:

Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL) Group

Location:

Riau and North Sumatra Provinces

Dates:

2022 – 2024

Background:

Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL) Group, a corporate entity in Indonesia’s pulp and paper industry, is committed to sustainable development in all operation locations, including the supply partners. APRIL is taking a landscape approach to the conservation of forests, peatlands, and other important environmental and social values. Therefore, High Conservation Value (HCV) and High Carbon Stock (HCS) assessments are required to suppport their commitments.

Services Provided:

Hatfield Indonesia conducted HCV assessments in three APRIL Group supply partner areas in Riau and North Sumatra provinces following the most recent HCV-HCS Assessment Manual. The activities include:

• Pre-assessment: Due diligence assessment is used to identify the pre-conditions and current progress, including the desktop study for environmental, social, and geospatial data, organisational policy, and a summary of consultations that follow Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes that have already occurred.
• Scoping visit: Determining information gaps that need to be addressed during the full assessment, assessing the adequacy of FPIC processes and documentation, identifying stakeholders and ground-truthing of land cover.
• Assessment for HCV- HCSA assessment: Field survey of social and environmental assessment, e.g., participatory social mapping, biodiversity survey, forest inventory. Continue with data analysis/interpretation for HCV identification, HCS forest patch analysis, peatland identification, local people’s land and community involvement in the decision process related to the HCV-HCS assessment to define the HCV-HCS areas and management recommendations.
• Land tenure and land use study: Conduct field visits to describe the general historic information of legal and customary land claims and linkage to a particular political, economic, and environmental context.
• Public consultation: Consultation of the results with stakeholders.