Conservation

RGE promotes sustainable development and responsible forestry management, which includes the identification and protection of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVF), and implementation of low impact harvesting techniques. We nurture mutually beneficial relationships with local communities aimed at fostering awareness and best practices in sustainable development. For example, RGE’s company APRIL has conserved and protected more than 250,000 hectares of HCVF in their concession areas, as part of its Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP), which is governed by an independent Stakeholder Advisory Committee to ensure transparency and implementation of the policy.

We have built our capabilities and established high professional standards to bolster our efforts at sustainable development and conservation. Apart from being equipped with state-of-the-art technology at our manufacturing facilities, RGE’s companies have been awarded the ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 certifications and PEFC FM/CoC forest certifications.

Water and energy

Water recycling and energy efficiency are critical to our operations. We invest in water treatment technologies to clean water and minimise wastage, keeping water withdrawals below government-set guidelines. We recycle production waste and effluent to generate energy and at the same time reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Fire management

RGE believes that effective fire management is vital to safeguarding sustainable plantation management and ongoing conservation efforts, and it is for this reason that all our suppliers must adhere to our strict no-burn policies.

As part of our zero-tolerance approach towards the burning of forests, we pioneered the ground-up multi-stakeholder Fire-Free Village Programme, which empowers and incentivises participating villages to adopt no-burn approaches to managing lands.

Piloted in 2014, the programme has since expanded to include more villages and stakeholders who are both trained to eliminate slash-and-burn practices and educated on the impacts that illegal fires have on the local environment and our global climate.

We also work closely with governments and communities to manage fires in the unfortunate event they cannot be prevented. Our world-class suppression capabilities include:

• Helicopters with fire crews
• Water bombing
• Fire trucks and airboats
• Rapid Response Teams

Eco-restoration

Our group of companies plays an active role in eco-restoration.

APRIL has developed an action plan for sustainable forest management, which includes the pledge to restore a total of 40,000 hectares of degraded peatland in Kampar Peninsula and Pulau Padang, Riau. The Action Plan was created based on the SFMP, which is crafted in consultation with multiple stakeholders and independently audited. This is a hallmark of our long-term commitment to restoration, which previously included our pioneering “one for one” restoration pledge – i.e. one hectare of conservation for every hectare of plantations.

APRIL also founded and sponsors the Restorasi Ekosistem Riau (RER) programme, which is committed to delivering comprehensive ecosystem restoration of ecologically important peat forest areas on Indonesia’s Kampar Peninsula, to fulfil environmental, economic and social imperatives in a sustainable manner.

We uphold our principle of supporting conservation areas equal in size to our plantation areas. This helps revitalise native plant and wildlife species, and sustains long-term biodiversity and community life.