INDONESIA (News release) -- Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) Sinar Mas has confirmed that there has been a tiger attack in the concession area of one of its subsidiaries, PT. Satria Perkasa Agung (SPA), resulting in a fatality to an employee of a contractor on February 5, 2022.

The management of APP is deeply saddened by the incident and expresses its condolences to the family of the victim. The company will be providing full support to the family of the victim during this difficult time. PT. SPA, with the support of APP, is working with the authorities to obtain information on the factors behind this incident and will continue to assist in the investigations.

APP would like to emphasize that while our priority at this moment is to support the family and assist the authorities with investigations, our immediate focus is on also ensuring the safety of our workers and their families, as well as the protection of wildlife, to prevent a similar attack from occurring.

Since the implementation of the Forest Conservation Policy in 2013, we've been able to tremendously reduce fatalities in relation to human wildlife conflict and APP continuous to be committed in reducing the conflicts between humans and wildlife in all areas where we operate, including within our supplier's area.

We will step up efforts to socialize & train workers on how to avoid conflict between humans and wildlife, and we will also strengthen the monitoring and compliance of Standard Operating Procedures by contractor workers in the field.

Our enhanced mitigation efforts will also include adjusting our forest management plan to take wildlife movement into account, providing functional and physical corridors for tigers & other wildlife crossing areas, monitoring the presence of tigers and potential prey, installing camera traps to monitor species populations in concessions and ensuring no illegal activities including hunting activity is carried out within the concession.

Our priority is the safety and well-being of our employees and their families. For this reason, we will continue to ensure that our standards and work protocols are carried out properly, to ensure that similar incidents do not happen in the future.