Daniel Pye – Asia Pulp and Paper has announced it has commissioned an independent audit of its practices in Indonesia following a UN call for businesses around the world to protect human rights.
But activists said they were skeptical given the company's record of environmental destruction, links to human rights abuses and the limited scope of the audit.
APP hired international accountancy firm Mazars to conduct the audit in the wake of the UN Human Rights Council's publication in June of the Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, a set of guidelines about how companies should act with regards to human rights.
"[Holding companies accountable] could be the next big thing in human rights," said Marzuki Darusman, director of the Asean Human Rights Resource Center, who will be part of the team carrying out the audit.
"But the audit could be compromised if at any time there is a conflict of interest between Mazars and APP. It does not ensure that there will be no human rights abuses in the future."
The audit would not be based solely on the UN principles, but James Kallman, president of Mazars Indonesia, said the firm would implement rigorous methods of assessment.
"We will be basing our study on more than 100 indicators including work environment, forced labor, gender equality, community and environmental impact and conflict resolution. We expect to be allowed full access to carry out our audit independently," he said. "Companies today need to realize that to be sustainable they need to consider factors other than how much money they make."
But Marzuki said that while they would look into alleged cases of abuse by APP, they were limited to the remit laid out in an APP policy statement provided to them and would not be able to investigate cases documented by third parties.
"This is not the first time APP has commissioned audits by companies claiming to be independent and they eventually always produce positive assessments [of APP], which we think is far from the reality on the ground," said Hariansyah Usman, head of Walhi Riau, a local environmental NGO.
The company is frequently cited in international and local NGOs' reports that claim it is involved in numerous cases of abuse and environmental destruction.
A 2003 Human Rights Watch report called "Without Remedy" included evidence of attacks on Malay and Sakai communities in Riau in Sumatra, the hub of Indonesia's pulp and paper industry. It alleged that an APP sister company, Arara Abadi, sent armed security, or Pam Swakarsa, overseen by Indonesian security forces, to violently intimidate villagers protesting against government-sanctioned land grabs.
The company has always denied the allegations and has recently pledged to abide by a two-year government ban on deforestation. But Hariasnyah said that Walhi Riau had evidence that APP has continued to clear protected forest outside of its already large concessions.
Norman Jiwan, head of Sawit (Palm Oil) Watch, said the moratorium was ineffective as it was not applied retrospectively, and APP would continue to do "business as usual."
"APP must go beyond the law, and implement best practices without compromising the human rights of local communities and indigenous peoples," he said.
At the time of going to print, APP had not responded to interview requests.