Forest and peatland clearance inside APP's Senepis tiger sanctuary
This morning in Jakarta APP invited journalists to the launch of what it’s PR people grandly referred to as the ‘biggest announcement yet’ which would ‘reveal APP’s greatest commitment to natural forest protection as part of its sustainability program’.
A Guardian investigation has revealed that Asia Pulp and Paper has
contracted the former EU trade commissioner Lord Peter Mandelson (aka The Prince of Darkness) as an advisor. Mandelson has an impressive
address book but, as this case shows, little regard for how those he advises make their money. Clearly issues around illegality and the fate of Indonesia's
rainforests don’t concern this particular Labour peer.
Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), the pulp and paper giant behind the
illegal timber scandal we exposed last month, has lost one of its largest
international investors. In March we released evidence from a
year-long investigation showing how illegal ramin was regularly
identified at APP’s main pulpmill in Indonesia, Indah Kiat Perawang.
Eleven companies were named at the time as having links to APP and
most, including Danone, Xerox and Mondi have acted to suspend any contracts with the APP.
It is three weeks since we launched 'The
Ramin Paper Trail' exposing that the logyards at APP’s main pulp
mill in Indonesia are riddled with illegal ramin logs. We also released
evidence showing that 11 companies, including Xerox, had rainforest
fibre from APP in their products.
More than two weeks ago, Greenpeace campaigners submitted video evidence documenting illegal ramin logs at APP's Indah Kiat mill to the Indonesian authorities - both the Ministry of Forestry and the national police. Today, the Ministry of Forestry notified us that it intends to visit the mill. Meanwhile, ongoing monitoring indicates that the company has been engaged in a rapid clean-up operation, removing ramin from its log yards.
While at Greenpeace we're perhaps best known for our direct actions, it’s our
investigation work that provides the foundation to expose these
environmental crimes.
Posted by Bustar Maitar -
29 February 2012 at 7:23pm -
3 Comments
“Zero tolerance for illegal wood.”
These are the five words that say a lot but
apparently mean little to Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a company that has made a mantra out of repeating
something which is simply not true. And
today, we’ve released proof that what APP says is wrong.
Deforestation in Sumatra, Indonesia by Sinar Mas supplier PT Arara Abadi
Another blow has been delivered to the credibility of Asia
Pulp and Paper (APP), thanks to some excellent
work by WWF. In a survey of the certification bodies that APP regularly references
to prop
up its flimsy claims of sustainability, none of them would support APP's assertions
about its environmental performance.
This was APP's Senepis Tiger Sanctuary, until one of APP's suppliers cut down the trees
Asia Pulp and Paper – the company doing so much to
jeopardise the future of Indonesia's
rainforests – has done some pretty stupid things in the past. But pulping the
trees in its own tiger sanctuary is astonishingly dumb.
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