APRIL and its subsidiaries have a long history of involvement in land and social conflicts in Riau, Indonesia. A 1998 study by the independent auditor, SGS, found that over 40,000 hectares of APRIL's concession area in Riau have been claimed by local communities as their traditional land (FOE, 2001). Social conflicts have erupted in several communities.

A comprehensive list of past social conflicts (until 2012) can be found in the Eyes on the Forest report.

• In August 2009, three people were killed and 16 wounded while resisting private security forces linked to an APRIL subsidiary during a protest over land rights in the village of Tangun. The APRIL Group claims these people died in an accident, but according to APRIL-Watch, the national Indonesian human rights commission does not believe APRIL's claim. 
• In 2011, the Teluk Meranti village started a lawsuit against the Ministry of Forestry, accusing it of not protecting human rights. The villagers have been in conflict with RAPP ever since it arrived in 2009 and claimed a concession of 151,254 hectares in Pelalawan. The community claim 25,842 hectares of the concession overlap with their customary lands.
• Since 2011, when PT. RAPP started operations on the island of Pulau Padang, they have caused conflicts with the local community. In January 2012, after weeks of protest in Jakarta, 28 citizens of Pulau Padang sewed their mouths in protest against PT. RAPP's operations on their customary land. They convinced the Ministry of Forestry to temporarily suspend the forest clearance operations, but in 2013 operations resumed, after three villages were removed from the concession. In January 2015, people from four villages of Pulau Padang were still protesting against PT RAPP. 
• In March 2012, residents of Gunung Sahilan in Riau, came in conflict with RAPP over a 2,000 hectares area which they claim is their traditional land. A joint statement of NGOs accused RAPP of provoking a riot by arming its 500 employees and security with machetes and heavy machinery such as skidders to ambush and assault the residents of Gunung Sahilan. During the clash, huts and rubber plantations of the residents were destroyed, 15 people were injured and 85 motorbikes were damaged, the NGOs said.
• In August 2012, a dispute mediation meeting was held on Pulau Rapat, in an attempt to solve a land conflict between local communities and APRIL's subsidiary PT Sumatera Riang Lestari (PT SRL). The conflict has been ongoing since 2007, when PT SRL arrived on the island. However, in June 2013 the indigenous Akit people still complained of lack of access to their ancestral lands.

Deforestation Extensive deforestation by APRIL suppliers has been documented, much of which in High Conservation Value (HCV) areas. According to maps produced by Eyes on the Forest (EoF), APRIL has access to pulpwood supply concessions covering more than 10% of Riau province's landmass (940,000 hectares). In 2013, Greenpeace reported that government data revealed that 60% of the fibre supply to APRIL's Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP) pulp mill in Indonesia was from rainforest wood. In 2012, EoF analysed satellite images and estimated that APRIL suppliers had cleared at least 140,000 hectares of natural forests between 2008 and 2011 in Riau, which corresponds to more than a quarter of all forest loss in that province. APRIL claims to plant 150 million trees every year, but these industrial plantation trees are mostly planted after clearing precious rainforests to establish the pulp plantations. Below are some examples of ongoing deforestation by APRIL and its suppliers:

• Clearing of protected areas, HCV Forests and peat land on Pulau Padang, Sumatra,
• Burning forest on Pulau Rupat, Sumatra and clearing of national protected areas, protected deap peat areas and protected ramin trees,
• Clearcutting by the APRIL supplier PT Triomas Forestry in the carbon-rich peatlands of the Kampar Peninsula (Riau, Sumatra), in April 2014, and construction of an ecologically devastating logging road that split Kampar peninsula's peat ecosystem in half,
• Clearing of HCV forest in Tana Tidung, North Kalimantan by APRIL subsidiary PT Adindo Hutani Lestari, as revealed in a May 2014 report by WWF and other NGOs.

Due to its role in the deforestation of Indonesian rainforests, UPM-Kymmene (2009) and Fuji Xerox (2011) have cancelled their contracts with APRIL. In January 2014, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), put APRIL's membership on probation because it did not adhere to its membership principles.

Green House Gas emissions and Forest Fires APRIL has many plantations located in deep peat areas. In order to exploit these, the peat are drained, which causes it to decompose and emit large amounts of green house gases. By the Indonesian government's own calculations, peat land is responsible for almost 40% of the country's total emissions. As it decomposes, the peat subsides, increasing the chances of flooding. A study released by the University of Helsinki shows that APRIL's Acacia plantations on peatland in Sumatra release around 80 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare per year.

The dry peat is also very susceptible to fire, which is then hard to extinguish. Despite APRIL's "no fire" policy, based on NASA Modis Fire monitoring, in the period of 13-19 February 2014, Eyes on the Forest identified 891 fire hotspots inside APRIL affiliated companies' concessions.

In April 2014, Eyes on the Forest documented apparent child labor at the timber plantation of PT Triomas (an APRIL supplier), in violation of national  legislation and international standards.