Indonesia’s second largest paper company, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), is locked in a dispute with the Indonesian government over the development of environmentally sensitive peatlands.

Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Ministry ruled on 16 October that April’s operational unit, PT RAPP, had flouted regulations on peat exploitation introduced by the government after the devastating forest fires of 2015, which blanketed much of Southeast Asia in the worst haze pollution on record.

The law in question was introduced in February this year. It forbids agribusiness firms which currently have crops on peatland from replanting on their lands after the current harvest cycle.

When drained and dried for agriculture, peat is highly vulnerable to the fires that have blighted Indonesia and its neighbours for generations.

The government ruled that APRIL’s long-term work plan was invalid after the company failed to meet a deadline with information on how it would move its operations off peatland.

In response to last week’s ruling, APRIL suspended operations, putting 4,600 staff on home leave, and declaring in a statement that “tens of thousands of jobs” were at risk. 

However, Environment and Forestry Ministry secretary general Bambang Hendroyono clarified on Wednesday that RAPP had not been forbidden from operating, and that the company’s decision to put its business on hold had been “just their interpretation.”

APRIL will be resuming operations.

Hendroyono added that the Singapore-based company has until 30 October to resubmit its 10-year work plan, detailing how it would manage peatland areas.

RAPP had been sent two warning letters, but did not submit a revised version of a work plan, known in Indonesian as Rencana Kerja Usaha or RKU, in time for the ministry’s mid-October deadline.

About half of APRIL’s 480,000-hectare land bank lies on peat. The company has said that it is working through a plan to move off peat, but the problem is securing new land to relocate its operations.

APRIL said in a statement that it is pushing for a “gradual and sequential transition” from peat to mineral soil that is “clean and clear.” 

Moving off peat quickly would leave the land vulnerable to encroachment and fires, the company claimed.

Indonesia’s Minister for the Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya told Singapore newspaper The Straits Times on Monday that RAPP should comply with the new rules, as all other industrial plantation companies had done, instead of following its own version of the law. 

She said that compliance with the rules was essential, as drained peatlands have been a major cause of Indonesia’s frequent forest fires.