Pressure Forces “Big Paper” Company Away From Natural Forests

What’s the Latest Development?

This month, Indonesia-based Asia Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd. (APP) announced that it would stop using wood from natural forests for its manufacturing, a decision that Rainforest Action Network spokesperson Laurel Sutherlin says represents “one of the biggest market-based campaign successes that [environmentalists have] seen in a long time.” APP is one of the largest paper companies in the world, and was one of several companies contributing to heavy deforestation in New Guinea, Borneo, and Sumatra, all of which are home to many unique plant and animal species.

What’s the Big Idea?

Pressure on APP to change its practices began when environmentalists alerted major multinational corporations such as Disney and Mattel to the role they were playing in the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests. As they slowly turned towards sustainably-sourced paper products, APP found itself increasingly frozen out. In months of negotiations with the paper giant, Greenpeace campaigner Rod Skar says that they’d received vague promises to change, but now the company has provided clear solutions as well as commitment from top executives. He says it’s “almost surreal…we’ve never seen that high level support before.”

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Read it at The Christian Science Monitor