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Monitoring and Protecting Conservation Forests

Monitoring and Protecting Conservation Forests

As a company operating across forest-based value chains, APP is committed to conserving and protecting forests for today and future generations. Central to this approach is the Land Cover Change Alert (LCCA) System, APP’s internally developed satellite‑based monitoring platform. Operational since 2024, the LCCA System provides regular, high‑frequency land cover change detection across all suppliers’ concession areas, significantly strengthening APP’s capabilities to safeguard forest landscapes. 

APP’s focus on robust monitoring is part of its broader commitment to responsible forest stewardship. This commitment is part of Regenesis, APP’s sustainability platform, which focuses on safeguarding forest landscapes, protecting biodiversity, and supporting sustainable livelihoods across the areas where we operate.

As part of the Forest Positive Policy, which builds on the Forest Conservation Policy established in 2013 to strengthen forest stewardship across our business, more than half a million hectares of natural forests across Sumatra and Kalimantan have been set aside for conservation, representing more than 20% of the total concession areas managed by APP and its suppliers. These conservation areas are protected through a combination of policy commitments, operational controls, community engagement, and technology-enabled monitoring, now led by the LCCA System.

Before the introduction of LCCA, APP partnered with MDA from 2017 to 2024 to monitor its conservation forest using RADARSAT-2 satellite imagery. The insights and experience from this partnership laid the foundation for developing the more integrated, scalable, and responsive LCCA System. 

Land Cover Change Alert (LCCA) System

Land Cover Change Alert (LCCA) System

Since 2024, APP has strengthened its forest monitoring capabilities through the implementation of the Land Cover Change Alert (LCCA) System, an internal system developed to provide regular and systematic land cover change monitoring across all suppliers’ concession areas. The system leverages Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite imagery, enabling consistent monitoring across tropical forest landscapes.

The LCCA System was developed to address the need for more frequent land cover monitoring and improved reconciliation between reported and observed land cover changes, while supporting compliance with government regulations and APP’s forest management commitments.

Sentinel-1 SAR & the LCCA System

The LCCA System utilizes Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite imagery, enabling consistent monitoring regardless of cloud cover, smoke, or lighting conditions, an essential capability for tropical forest environments.

The advantages of Sentinel-1 SAR-based monitoring include:

  • Reliable monitoring in all weather and lighting conditions, ensuring observations remain consistent even during heavy cloud cover or at night.
  • Regular and frequent satellite coverage, with Sentinel‑1 capable of revisiting the same area in as little as six days. In operational use, imagery is collected on a routine schedule and processed monthly to support consistent monitoring and reporting.
  • Better visibility of land cover changes, which helps identify potential risks or disturbances at an early stage.
  • Wide imaging swaths of up to 250 km in Interferometric Wide (IW) mode, allowing large forest areas to be monitored efficiently in a single pass.
  • Moderate to high spatial resolution (5–20 m), enabling the detection of smaller or more subtle disturbances such as selective logging, narrow clearings, or gradual canopy degradation.

The system integrates satellite imagery with artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques to detect land cover changes with a high level of accuracy, identifying patterns that may indicate forest disturbance or land clearing and supported by a web-based GIS platform that allows alerts to be visualized, cases to be tracked, and follow-up actions to be monitored until resolved.

 

The forest monitoring data presented on APP’s Forest Monitoring Dashboard represents forest cover change alert data within protected areas inside APP suppliers’ concessions, as verified by the third-party firm EY. This review is intended to enable APP to independently demonstrate to its stakeholders that the information shown on the Forest Monitoring Dashboard is an accurate representation of the verified origin and integrity of the monitoring data provided on the APP Dashboard. 

The independent summary report is available below:

Forest Monitoring Dashboard Legend & Disclaimers 

  • Legend
    • Alert Detected: Total alerts received from server on potential changes occurring in protected areas. The alert indicates that there has likely been some tree loss (“Damage”) somewhere inside the Alert Polygon.
    • Total Estimated Forest Cover Change: Estimated total area with verified forest cover change.
    • Protected Area: Size of protected areas (HCV / HCS areas) in the selected forest management unit (FMU).
    • Percentage of Foret Cover Change: Percentage of verified area with forest cover change or degradation against the total protected area of the FMU.
    • Overlapping License: Verified forest cover change in areas identified with overlapping permits.
    • Illegal Activities: Verified forest cover change caused by illegal activities (encroachment, illegal logging, or illegal mining) al logging, or illegal mining).
    • Natural Causes: Verified forest cover change cause by natural causes (flooding, strong winds or landslides).
    • Unchanged: Alerts verified as no forest cover change.
    • Unverified: Alerts unverified due to lack of accessibility.
    • To Be Verified: Alerts verification on progress.
  • Pie Chart displays the percentage of Overlapping License, Illegal Activities, Natural Causes, Unchanged, Unverified data and To Be Verified.
  • The dashboard only presents alert data for protected areas within APP’s and its pulpwood suppliers’ concessions in Indonesia.
  • The size of forest cover change is an estimation based on the size of polygon alerts.
  • The size of polygon does not necessarily mean that there is forest cover change in the whole polygon area. Instead, to polygon only indicates that there are changes that are detected within the area covered by polygon.
  • The alerts do not include hot spot or fire data.

 

LCCA Workflow & Reporting Dashboard

LCCA Workflow & Reporting Dashboard

1. After the system generates forest cover change alerts in protected areas within the concessions of APP’s suppliers, the data goes through an attribute‑identification process. At this stage, APP uses an automated system to overlay each alert with additional information such as potential land disputes, overlapping licenses, spatial boundaries, and other relevant attributes. This step helps provide the context needed by field teams to plan their response and carry out field verification more effectively. 

2. Priority is given to areas with the largest polygon data. 

  • If caused by illegal activities, it will be marked under dispute resolution process. 

  • If caused by natural disaster, the area would be marked for restoration and rehabilitation. 

3. The alert data will also be used to identify critical areas where security patrols need to be increased, or to implement further intervention.