North Sumatra

As the Independent Assessor appointed by FSC for the North Sumatra impact areas, Remark Asia has undertaken its responsibilities for APRIL’s FSC Remedy Process. Guided by the FSC Remedy Framework, Remark Asia’s role included conducting both the Environmental Baseline Assessment (EBA) and Social Baseline Assessment (SBA) to identify past social and environmental harms due to unacceptable activities.
The process began in mid-2023 with discussions on assessment methodology between APRIL, FSC, and Remark Asia. This was followed by a desk review of information from internal, publicly available documents as well as stakeholders’ input.

In January 2024, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) for the Social Baseline Assessment were held with affected stakeholders to introduce Remark Asia, inform on the remedy process with historical background as to why this process is initiated, explain about baseline assessment steps, explain about FPIC process and most importantly to obtain permission to conduct site visit at their respective villages. Once permission was granted, village visits were conducted from February to March 2024 to engage directly with communities and gather more detail information as part of a more in-depth study. The engagement started with information sharing on baseline assessment process and continued with discussion with communities to explore issues that may be included as potential harms. This activity included participatory mapping to identify harms and location where harms occurred as well as ground checked together with communities.

For Environmental Baseline Assessment, Remark Asia conducted field verification to supplement the initial spatial analysis and document review. The assessment was focusing on identification of identify past land cover and condition of impact areas as well estimating past potential existence of high conservation values. Expert consultation was conducted to get input on analysis to determine past environmental harms.

Stakeholder consultations were held in September 2024 by Remark Asia to present on methodology and analysis of the social and environmental baseline assessment. These sessions were attended by local governments, NGOs, academics and union representatives. This was followed by in-person consultations with affected rights holders in October 2024, allowing for direct feedback on the process and identified social harms. All input from these consultations was incorporated into the final baseline assessment report, which was then submitted to FSC.

In August 2024, APRIL organized a Technical Expert Workshop in Jakarta, bringing together environmental and social experts—including academics, researchers, NGOs, and labor unions. This workshop sought to gather insights and recommendations to further strengthen APRIL Group’s FSC Remedy schemes.