Major paper firm vows to end rainforest cutting
Asia Pulp & Paper Co., seen as a major foreign rival that threatens the survival of Wisconsin paper mills, on Tuesday announced a self-imposed ban on cutting natural rainforest in Indonesia - a move that follows years of international complaints over the company’s logging practices.
Much of the international pressure on APP originated because of forestry practices that were pioneered in Wisconsin, where the paper industry commanded a leading role over the past century in developing renewable approaches to tree farming that now are widely adopted by international paper mills and third-party environmental forestry certification groups.
While Wisconsin mills take pride in the “greenness” of their paper, some multinational companies and consumers have boycotted APP over allegations of destructive forestry. In recent years, APP lost major contracts to distributors like office supply chain Staples Inc., which feared “great peril to our brand.” The Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies sustainable forestry, severed ties with APP, the only time the group has taken such an action. The Asian operations of Kimberly-Clark Corp. shuns APP “because the sustainability of the product is open to question.”
Tuesday’s announcement comes two months after APP was at the center of a Journal Sentinel special report, which examined how digital technologies and globalization threaten the existence of the paper industry in Wisconsin.
The report said APP is at the center of several major environmental and trade disputes. Wisconsin paper mills lobbied the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose tariffs on imports of APP paper in 2010. Wisconsin mills say APP forced the closure of at least one major Wisconsin mill and sells its imports at dumping prices.
APP is based in Indonesia, home of some of the world’s largest rainforests, but its biggest pulp and paper mills are located in China, which overtook the U.S. as the world’s biggest papermaker in 2009. APP is the biggest paper producer in China and the world’s biggest maker of glossy coated paper used for magazines and catalogs - a grade of paper invented in Wisconsin. Wisconsin ranks as the biggest papermaking state in the U.S. while commercial forestry also remains a major industry in northern Wisconsin.
APP, which is privately held, has been working to change its international image for years.
“This is one of the most significant days in the history of APP,” APP director for sustainability Aida Greenbury said during a press announcement in Jakarta.
The World Wildlife Fund, which has monitored APP’s forestry practices for more than two decades, issued a statement that welcomed the APP announcement, but WWF also “urged paper buyers to wait for confirmation of the claims through independent monitoring by civil society before doing business with APP.”
WWF noted that “APP has a long history” of making promises to cease cutting natural forest and instead rely on plantation-grown pulpwood. In the past, APP has set such deadlines by 2004, 2007 and 2009, but missed each of those deadlines.
In June, APP said it aimed to rely on pulp plantations by 2015. But in Tuesday’s announcement, APP said it has moved that deadline forward by two years and now has imposed a ban on rainforests, effectively immediately.
WWF forestry director Kerry Cesareo said the group and a coalition of other environmental groups have monitored APP since 1984. Since that time, the wildlife fund estimates that APP has pulped nearly 5 million acres of tropical forest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which equals an area the size of 4 million football fields or a surface larger than Massachusetts. WWF severed ties with APP in 2004 after it said APP failed to honor its forestry commitments.
Environmental groups decry destructive forest practices because trees are carbon dioxide sponges and the world’s forest cover amounts to the planet’s best defense against climate change, Cesareo said.
Supporting APP is The Forest Trust, a global non-profit that monitors environmental practices. The Forest Trust released its own statement, which says the group brokered the agreement with APP on one side and groups like Greenpeace on the other.
The Forest Trust noted that APP’s new forestry policies apply to mills in China.
“A lot of companies need external pressure in order to change,” said Forest Trust spokeswoman Claire Adam.
Much of the international pressure on APP originated because of forestry practices that were pioneered in Wisconsin, where the paper industry commanded a leading role over the past century in developing renewable approaches to tree farming that now are widely adopted by international paper mills and third-party environmental forestry certification groups.
While Wisconsin mills take pride in the “greenness” of their paper, some multinational companies and consumers have boycotted APP over allegations of destructive forestry. In recent years, APP lost major contracts to distributors like office supply chain Staples Inc., which feared “great peril to our brand.” The Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies sustainable forestry, severed ties with APP, the only time the group has taken such an action. The Asian operations of Kimberly-Clark Corp. shuns APP “because the sustainability of the product is open to question.”
Tuesday’s announcement comes two months after APP was at the center of a Journal Sentinel special report, which examined how digital technologies and globalization threaten the existence of the paper industry in Wisconsin.
The report said APP is at the center of several major environmental and trade disputes. Wisconsin paper mills lobbied the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose tariffs on imports of APP paper in 2010. Wisconsin mills say APP forced the closure of at least one major Wisconsin mill and sells its imports at dumping prices.
APP is based in Indonesia, home of some of the world’s largest rainforests, but its biggest pulp and paper mills are located in China, which overtook the U.S. as the world’s biggest papermaker in 2009. APP is the biggest paper producer in China and the world’s biggest maker of glossy coated paper used for magazines and catalogs - a grade of paper invented in Wisconsin. Wisconsin ranks as the biggest papermaking state in the U.S. while commercial forestry also remains a major industry in northern Wisconsin.
APP, which is privately held, has been working to change its international image for years.
“This is one of the most significant days in the history of APP,” APP director for sustainability Aida Greenbury said during a press announcement in Jakarta.
The World Wildlife Fund, which has monitored APP’s forestry practices for more than two decades, issued a statement that welcomed the APP announcement, but WWF also “urged paper buyers to wait for confirmation of the claims through independent monitoring by civil society before doing business with APP.”
WWF noted that “APP has a long history” of making promises to cease cutting natural forest and instead rely on plantation-grown pulpwood. In the past, APP has set such deadlines by 2004, 2007 and 2009, but missed each of those deadlines.
In June, APP said it aimed to rely on pulp plantations by 2015. But in Tuesday’s announcement, APP said it has moved that deadline forward by two years and now has imposed a ban on rainforests, effectively immediately.
WWF forestry director Kerry Cesareo said the group and a coalition of other environmental groups have monitored APP since 1984. Since that time, the wildlife fund estimates that APP has pulped nearly 5 million acres of tropical forest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which equals an area the size of 4 million football fields or a surface larger than Massachusetts. WWF severed ties with APP in 2004 after it said APP failed to honor its forestry commitments.
Environmental groups decry destructive forest practices because trees are carbon dioxide sponges and the world’s forest cover amounts to the planet’s best defense against climate change, Cesareo said.
Supporting APP is The Forest Trust, a global non-profit that monitors environmental practices. The Forest Trust released its own statement, which says the group brokered the agreement with APP on one side and groups like Greenpeace on the other.
The Forest Trust noted that APP’s new forestry policies apply to mills in China.
“A lot of companies need external pressure in order to change,” said Forest Trust spokeswoman Claire Adam.
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