Following the learning by doing spirit of the FSC Remedy Framework, APRIL has completed a pilot community survey as another way of enabling local communities to directly provide input into the baseline assessment, particularly in the identification of past harms.
The pilot was developed to test ways of expanding the data collection for the baseline assessment and supporting the work of the independent assessors.
Conducted in September 2025 across five villages in the province of Riau in Indonesia, the survey’s objective was to enable participating communities to directly identify potential social and environmental harms related to the historical operations of APRIL.
To facilitate participation and understanding, local ‘community champions’ were engaged to explain the survey’s purpose and questions to residents who were requested to personally fill in the questionnaire. This grassroots approach has shown initial effectiveness, with 1,031 community members responding, exceeding the initial target of 800 participants.
Of the 1,031 participants, 42% indicated that they had experienced negative impacts related to historical operations, while 58% reported no negative impacts.
For those who identified negative impacts, the survey further categorized the nature of these concerns. The primary issues raised were:
- Land Tenure: 43% of respondents cited this as a key concern.
- Impacts on Livelihoods: 18% noted effects on livelihoods.
- Environmental impacts: 36% raised issues related to environmental harms.
The findings will be provided as input to the Independent Assessors to help inform the baseline assessment based on direct responses from the communities in the impacted areas.
The pilot survey represents a tangible step in APRIL’s commitment to an inclusive remedy process and to continually improving its implementation. The use of individual questionnaires for data collection will be further considered in discussion with the independent assessors.
