The mill - and the manicured company town that surrounds it - is the nerve center of a sprawling acacia plantation, much of which is on peatland.
APRIL is keen to boost its environmental credentials, running a tagging system to prevent illegal logging. Two of its security guards were killed in a 2002 confrontation with illegal loggers.
Still, seven of APRIL's partner companies are under investigation for illegally cutting forests.
A cornerstone of APRIL's green efforts is water management in its peatland plantations. At its nearby Pelalawan plantation, a 1,100km network of canals regulates water levels over 100,000 hectares of planted forest.
The goal of the management is to reduce emissions from the peatland beneath, explained Jouko Virta, head of APRIL's global fiber supply. By keeping the water table at the highest level tolerated by the plantation trees, Virta says carbon dioxide emissions from the peatland can be reduced by 80 percent.
The company is now pursuing an audacious plan to push into Kampar, converting more than 100,000 hectares around the peninsula's perimeter into more plantations, while leaving the center untouched.
APRIL says the move will reduce carbon emissions, since much of this perimeter is already heavily degraded, either by illegal loggers or old concessionaires.
By installing their own plantations and managing them responsibly, they believe they will keep illegal loggers from penetrating further inland.
"National parks are the happiest hunting grounds for illegal loggers, and the only way you can protect them is by building barriers," Virta said.
WWF reserved judgment on APRIL's plan, saying they needed to see evidence that the Kampar ring is really as degraded as the company says, and that emissions can actually be reined in as much as they say.
"I think we need to see the scientific analysis," said Nazir Foead, WWF's policy and corporate engagement director, adding that the organization was aiming to complete its own analysis by the Bali meeting next month.
Consultant Jonotoro is unconvinced by APRIL's optimism and said acacia plantations will never be a success on Kampar's nutrient-poor peatland.
"The main point of why they chose this area is because they need natural timber, big hardwood timber" for their mills, he said, referring to their legal practice of felling and processing the trees from their concessions before planting.
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