The APSM destroys ecosystems on which livelihoods of the local population depends. 4,000 people live in the Tungiro-Olekminsky District, of which 2000 are native Evenki Indigenous Peoples. Their land will be devastated, because up to two million hectares has been offered for forest lease. One million hectares of the Mogochinsky District are offered for forest lease, as well as the pulp mill, roads and border crossing bridge. The district is however home to 14,000 people, mostly employed in rail and mining. 2000 of them are subsistence hunters and 100 are professional hunters, all of whom will suffer from devastation of forest resources and poaching by incoming loggers from China. Locals are also deprived of subsistence and recreational fishing due to the dam blocking the Amazar river, built without EIA or public consultation. 

There is a high level of unemployment among the local population in the region, but the company is living up to its commitment to employ local workers. In 2016 it employed 90 workers from Russia and 300 from China, although agreements prescribe at least 50% of the workforce should be local.

Moreover, the APSM has brought continuous disruption to the local community and the development of Amazar township and its regional economy. The company forms its own isolated community that competes for resources and influence with local people. It seeks to develop its own transportation routes and system, ignoring the fact that Amazar is a hub-station on the Trans-Siberian railroad. Chinese forest enterprises outcompete local businessmen in securing forest leases and make it more difficult for locals to access fire-wood and non-timber forest products. The local forest management department is overburdened by overseeing large Chinese leases and has limited capacity to serve the subsistence need of local population. The officials at the local and district level are often corrupt and provide preferential treatment to the APSM at the expense of local interests.

At the wider interprovincial level, the whole development scheme is distorted to please the APSM and its sponsors, which is best illustrated by the border-crossing issue (see ‘environment’ for more explanation).

Local activists in the town of Amazar have many times engaged in direct action to prevent violations by APSM, like extracting construction material near residents’ homes. 

APSM plans to log between 1.15 million and 1.6 million cubic metres of timber every year by clearcutting, which will lead to several detrimental consequences:

• APSM will destroy biodiversity hotspots: Most of the logging is planned in primary forests. Forests presently leased by the mill for the most part are intact old-growth forests of the highest biodiversity value, home to many rare species of flora and fauna.  
• APSM will lead to deforestation and devastation of resources: A Greenpeace Russia analysis of the availability of timber for APSM operations shows that the wood resources in a 250 km radius are insufficient even for 10-year operation of the pulp mill. This is supported by a report of the President's Council on Civil Society Development and Human Rights in Russian Federation. 
• Boreal forests of the region are slow-growing and not very productive. The area is severely affected by climate fluctuation, which causes permafrost melt and makes forest regrowth more problematic. Subsequently, regional officials also recognized that the area after fires has insufficient forest resources to support sustainable production.
• The project destroys important aquatic ecosystems: The dam built on the major tributary of the Amur river threatens the population of IUCN Red List rare salmonid fish (Hucho taimen). A smaller dam on an adjacent river has already driven down fish species numbers from 22 to just three species in less than 100 years. Significant water pollution and waste production is also expected from the pulp mill operation. 
• Industrialisation of the region: The company plans to reopen the border gate Porkovka-Loguhe (Russia-China) to bring raw logs and lumber to China, as was the case between 2000-2008. Locals fear that this project and the reopening of the border will be the beginning of endless industrial devastation of the region. This road and bridge will dissect two nature reserves and open the last old-growth forests that to exploitation. The forests are present in Russia along Amur and Argun rivers, which are trans-boundary rivers. HXIC, the owner of the mill, has lobbied for this construction.

The concession given to the company is partly on the land of the Evenk Indigenous Peoples of central and eastern Siberia, Mongolia and Inner Mongolia. As such, the project threatens livelihoods of this indigenous group.

Although the company made a statement it won’t touch land of the Indigenous Evenks, in legal terms it still has the concessions over it. The Zabaikalsy Province goverment is currently seeking a way to partly replace APSM's forest consessions by 721 hectares elsewhere with maximum possible production of 465,000 cubic metres of wood annually. 

Most of the workers employed by the Amazar pulp mill are men. Traditionally, women collect non-timber forest products from the natural forests such as berries, mushrooms, and edible or medicinal herbs. The pulp mill is destroying such forests including its non-timber products.