Last month Greenpeace exposed the links between Spicers and
Sinar Mas which Greenpeace labelled as one of the leading forest
and climate destroyers in Indonesia.
Yesterday Spicers issued a press release saying it expected to
stop sourcing from Indonesia within the next few months despite
efforts by the company to help Indonesian suppliers to improve
their environmental performance.
"The amount of concern expressed about products, not just paper,
sourced from Indonesian forests has reached a point where clearly
the progress has been insufficient to meet the current market
needs," Spicers press statement stated.
Greenpeace forests campaigner Grant Rosoman welcomed the
decision saying it would help put pressure on all Indonesian
suppliers of forestry and plantation products to stop destroying
large areas of the country's rainforests.
"This is great news for the forests of Indonesia and to help
save the climate. Spicers join what is now a growing number of
responsible companies which are saying no to forest destruction. We
urge others who are buying Indonesian products to check very
carefully they are not sourced from destroying the forest," said
Rosoman.
Spicers is the second company, this month, to pull out of
Indonesia due to Sinar Mas poor environmental record. Last week
Unilever announced it was suspending all future purchases of palm
oil from PT SMART, part of the Sinar Mas group, until such time as
it could provide verifiable proof that none of its plantations were
contributing to the destruction of high conservation value forests
and expanding onto peat lands (1).
Last month global paper giant, UPM-Kymmene said it would stop
buying pulp from Sinar Mas rival Asia Pacific Resources
International Holding Limited (APRIL) which operates one of the
world's largest pulp mills in Riau and is responsible for causing
widespread rainforest in Indonesia (2).
Greenpeace New Zealand communications manager Suzette Jackson,
who was working in Indonesia last month to stop deforestation said
while it was encouraging to see companies were responding to the
Greenpeace campaign it was disappointing New Zealand was still
linked to rainforest destruction through Fonterra.
Earlier this year Fonterra was implicated in the palm industry's
clearing and burning of rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia to
make way for palm plantations which provide products including
palm-based animal feed used on New Zealand dairy farms.
"Large companies like Spicers and Unilever have recognised the
role they played in rainforest destruction and have pulled out. Now
it's time for Fonterra to do the same. By continuing to import palm
based animal feed New Zealand is having a major impact on
Indonesia's rainforests and climate change."
Indonesia has one of the fastest rates of forest loss in the
world. The destruction of the country's peatlands alone accounts
for 4% of global human induced greenhouse gas emissions (3),
propelling Indonesia to become the world's third largest greenhouse
gas emitter, after the US and China (4).
Other contacts: Grant Rosoman, Greenpeace forests campaigner, 021 428 415
Suzette Jackson, Greenpeace New Zealand communications manager, 021 614 899
Notes: (1)http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/id/en/news/unilever-ends-contracts
(2)http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/id/en/release/global-paper-giant-cancels-apr
(3)Hooijer, A, M Silvius, H Wösten, H and S Page (2006) PEAT-CO2, Assessment of CO2 emissions from drained peatlands in SE Asia Delft Hydraulics report Q3943 7 December 2006
(4)WRI 2008. Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) Version 6.0 (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute) http://cait.wri.org
Exp. contact date: 2010-01-16 00:00:00