Sustainability
Conservation
Overview
Conservation starts here
Nature-based solutions
About 10 million hectares of forest are deforested each year globally. Although the rate has been slowing in recent years, further action is needed if society is going to achieve global climate goals.
We uphold no deforestation in our supply chain, and our suppliers are expected to adhere to our Sustainability Policy.
Through our one for one commitment we’re working to match one hectare of conservation and restoration forest for every hectare of our plantations, ensuring that while we produce, we can also protect. And we’re getting closer to achieving our goal.
Because conservation starts here.
Our contributions
Restoring a critical peatland ecosystem
The Riau Ecosystem Restoration (RER) initiative, located at the heart of Kampar Peninsula and Padang Island in Riau Province, Sumatra in Indonesia, focuses on the restoration and conservation of 150,000 hectares of ecologically vital peat forest, an area the size of London.
Adopting an integrated production-protection landscape approach, our plantations located on the perimeter of RER create a buffer zone that effectively mitigates human encroachment, illegal logging and fires.
As of December 2023, 893 species were recorded in RER: 78 types of mammals including the critically endangered Sumatran Tiger and the endangered Flat-headed Cat, 319 birds, 106 amphibians and reptiles, 89 fish, 100 odonata and 201 plants.
UNESCO recognition
On the other side of the world in Brazil, we have more than 200,000 hectares of plantation.
Lontra is one of four conservation areas under Brazil’s Private Natural Heritage Reserves. In 2019, United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognised Lontra as an Outpost of the Atlantic Forest Biosphere Reserve. It is also a Wild Animal Release Area, certified by the Government of Bahia. Today, Lontra is home to at least 216 species of birds, 62 amphibians and lizards, 15 types of snakes and 25 mammals.
Restoring Poyang Lake
Together with Conservation International, we’re restoring and conserving the largest freshwater lake in China.
Poyang Lake, in Jiangxi Province, China, plays a critical role in regulating floods in the Yangtze River, and is a vital ecosystem for the environment, culture, and economy.
By saving Poyang Lake, we can support the livelihoods of more than 45 million people and enable the lake to be a habitat for flora and fauna of high conservation value, including the critically endangered Siberian crane and finless porpoise.
Committed to conservation
Conservation is embedded in the 2030 sustainability roadmaps announced by many of our business groups.
Our production-protection model uses our fibre plantations to provide the financial and other resources needed to protect conservation forests, and business groups including APRIL and Bracell have enshrined this in a one for one commitment to conserve one hectare of forest for every hectare of plantation.
Under the Thriving Landscapes pillar of APRIL2030, APRIL sets aside US$1 per tonne of fibre supplied to the mills to fund conservation, raising US$67 million as of 2024, including for the flagship RER project.
And Sateri 2030 aims to contribute to a net positive state of nature, including through conservation work at Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China.