Independent auditor Mazars has verified the report, which APP said proved "beyond all doubt" its commitment to the development of a sustainable pulp and paper industry.

Mazars investigated the report, based on third-party and internal documentation from APP, and gathered evidence relating to the contents of the document.

Aida Greenbury, managing director of sustainability and stakeholder engagement at APP, said: "Getting the Facts Down on Paper refutes and rejects the fictitious and misleading accusations made by certain NGOs.

"The verification report by Mazars provides us and the public with hard evidence that APP is following a rigorously planned and implemented sustainability path."

However, WWF Indonesia has criticised the report. Aditya Bayunanda, WWF's pulp and paper coordinator for Indonesia, said: "Satellites images have been capturing and documenting every single hectare that the company has destroyed for years."

He said WWF was one of dozens of Indonesian NGOs that had been detailing this and more in numerous reports in an independent and transparent manner.

He added that no published NGO report on APP's operations was referenced in the audited CSR report.

"The public is thus provided with nothing but a cover letter on an unpublished 'assurance report' about documents that are not made available to public," he said.

APP has persistently battled allegations of illegal logging and poor sustainability practices made by NGOs such as the WWF and Greenpeace.

Read the original article at www.printweek.com.

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