Indonesia’s Royal Golden Eagle Group involved in deforestation, despite its sustainability commitments

Amsterdam, 16 March 2021. One of Indonesia’s largest companies, the Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) group, is connected to 9,400 hectares of deforestation in 2020. RGE is among Indonesia’s largest companies in palm oil, pulp, paper and textile fibers. It claims to have a no-deforestation commitment.

Aidenvironment has identified this deforestation through spatial and ownership analysis of Indonesia’s pulp and paper sector. This analysis shows that the five largest deforesters for pulp and paper in 2020 were responsible for 13,000 hectares of forest loss. RGE stands out as being connected to numbers one, three and four of the top five companies.

The largest deforesting company group was Nusantara Fiber, which cleared 6,900 hectares of forest in Kalimantan, including habitat of the Bornean orangutan. In a recent report, Aidenvironment revealed the connection between RGE and Nusantara Fiber.

The third and fourth largest deforesters are current suppliers to RGE’s pulp and paper operations. The Sumatera Dinamika Utama group cleared 1,300 hectares of forest, and PT Adindo Hutani Lestari cleared 1,200 hectares. All the deforestation connected to RGE occurred in Kalimantan. The presence of these deforestation-linked suppliers in RGE’s supply chain shows that RGE is failing to meet its commitments to no-deforestation.

The second largest deforester in 2020 was the Alas Kusuma group, which cleared 2,800 hectares of forest, including orangutan habitat. Alas Kusuma also has oil palm operations, likely supplying companies with no-deforestation commitments.

Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper company, Sinar Mas, was number five on the list, clearing 800 hectares in 2020.

Table: Indonesia’s top deforesters in the industrial tree sector

Source: recent satellite imagery overlapped with forest cover maps of Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and company registry files.

For more information, please contact Chris Wiggs