01 December 2023
HCSA Community Land Use Planning Pilot Project With Forest Peoples Programme (FPP)
Musim Mas adheres to relevant RSPO requirements for new development and the expansion of plantation areas. We are committed to zero conversion of the natural ecosystems within our operations, particularly in high conservation value (HCV) areas, peatlands, and high carbon stock (HCS) forests.
We initiated HCV assessments for all our operations since 2007 and have maintained all HCV areas, including areas subsequently classified as HCS areas. There has been zero deforestation in Musim Mas operations following our cut-off date of 31 December 2015, as published in our Sustainability Policy.
Since 2017, our total conservation area has increased by 35% to over 28,000 hectares in December 2021. Our efforts include enhancing natural areas which have been degraded, affected by fires, or encroached. A crucial part of our approach is involving surrounding communities in every stage of the development and execution of our conservation management plans. In addition, our conservation teams regularly conduct biodiversity surveys, ground patrols, and satellite monitoring to prevent illegal development and hunting or the degradation of lands that are affected by fires.
Musim Mas conducts regular and comprehensive biodiversity surveys in and around our concession areas. These surveys include desktop reviews of the availability of flora and fauna, the collection of samples during field visits, and interviews with local communities to assist us in maintaining inventories of plant and animal species and their critical habitats.
Our HCV management plans for existing plantations are reviewed and updated annually. These include action plans for the protection and survival of Rare, Threatened and Endangered (RTE) species and species protected by law, and for the prevention of hunting within and outside our concession areas. The hunting of RTE species, and species protected by law, is prohibited in all our concessions, and we do not operate within nationally designated protected areas.
To eliminate hunting within our concessions, workers and their families are also prohibited from keeping wildlife in captivity. To help prevent such practices from taking place within the wider landscape, we engage with the communities surrounding our operations with constructive conversations regarding these issues and raise awareness about the importance of conservation.
Additional measures have been taken to prevent illegal development within forest and conservation areas. We conduct ground patrols and monitor encroachment by analyzing Landsat images of mapped areas.
We have taken steps to restore our set-aside areas, with the hope of reverting these areas to their natural state as much as possible. For example, we started working with the Indonesian Forestry Agency in 2009 to restore our riparian zones by replacing palms with jungle trees.
