Media Backgrounder: Greenpeace Boreal Forest Campaign Action Targeting SFK Pulp, Abitibi-consolidated and Stora Enso

What is being loaded into the Jaeger Arrow freighter?

Several thousands of tonnes of pulp manufactured at SFK Pulp's St- Felicien pulp mill is loaded onto the feighter via the port of Grande Ames, Quebec (also called the Saguenay Port). This pulp is manufactured from wood chips supplied by logging company Abitibi-Consolidated as well as Bowater.

Who owns the Jaeger Arrow freighter?

Gearbulk owns the freighter. Gearbulk is an international shipping company that specializes in the transport of forest products and metals. The freighter is registered under a Bahamanian flag of convenience. It has a gross tonnage of 18900 tonnes. It rises 30 metres above the water and is 171 metres long.

Why is Greenpeace targeting SFK Pulp today?

The main supplier of chips to SFK Pulp for use in the manufacture of the company's pulp is Abitibi-Consolidated, with additional supply from Bowater. These companies are mismanaging the Boreal Forest and have done little to measurably improve their forestry practices or ensure that critical wildlife habitat and intact areas of the Boreal Forest under their tenure are protected. Although SFK Pulp does not engage in any direct logging, the company is one of the main customers of Abitibi-Consolidated and has not answered our call to take action.

Originally owned by Abitibi, SFK was spun off the company in 2002. Abitibi fully divested in February 2004. Since 2002, a 20-year fibre supply agreement has been in place between Abitibi and SFK: Abitibi supplies nearly all of SFK's wood chips for pulp manufacture, worth nearly CDN$92 million, and in turn it also buys some of SFK's pulp.

Many of the chips that Abitibi-Consolidated supplies under its 20-year fibre supply agreement with SFK Pulp originate in intact forest areas in the Lac St-Jean region of Quebec located 500 km north-east of Montreal. SFK also receives chips from Bowaterr.

What should SFK Pulp do?

SFK Pulp can help to protect the Boreal Forest by adopting a procurement policy that gives preference to FSC certified wood and exert pressure on its chip suppliers to end logging in critical wildlife habitat and intact areas of the Boreal Forest.

Have you communicated with Abitibi-Consolidated and SFK Pulp?

In June 2003, we began discussions with Abitibi to improve their forestry operations. Despite nearly two years of meetings, phone calls and discussions, there was no measurable change in the way Abitibi practiced forestry. We broke off discussions in May 2005. In June 2007 we communicated our concerns to Abitibi and again in August, when we met with CEO John Weaver and members of his executive team. Abitibi, to date, has not committed to any actions to address our concerns. In June 2007 we outlined our concerns in a letter to SFK Pulp CEO Andre Bernier. We have not yet received a reply.

What is the frequency of shipments from the port of Grande Ames to Europe?

Shipments are sent approximately once a month.

What is the destination for this pulp?

The ship will unload in the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium. The vast majority of the pulp is destined for 2 paper mills owned by Stora Enso. These mills are located in Kabel, Germany and Corbehem, France. This pulp is used in the manufacture of magazine papers sold throughout Europe.

What is Stora Enso?

Stora Enso is a Finnish based forest products company, one of the largest in the world. The company has 44,000 employees in more than 40 countries on five continents. Stora Enso produces 16.5 million tonnes of paper and board and 7.4 million cubic metres of sawn wood products each year. Stora Enso is the world's second-largest producer of magazine paper, representing 19 per cent of the market in Europe, 14 per cent in North America, and 40 per cent in Latin America. This unit has annual production capacity of 4.8 million tonnes.

Who are some of Stora Enso's customers which use the paper containing Boreal Forest pulp?

Many magazine publishers in Europe use Stora Enso's paper. Ones using paper containing the Boreal Forest pulp include Der Spiegel, Conde Nast, and Bauer Verlag Group, one of Europe's largest magazine publishers. As well many catalogs in Europe are printed on Stora Enso's paper containing Boreal Forest pulp.

What is the value of forest products exported from Quebec and Ontario to Europe and the US?

In 2005, Quebec exported CDN$10 billion (US$9.6 billion) of forest products to the United States and CDN$684 million (US$655 million) to Europe. Ontario exported CDN$8.1 billion (US$7.8 billion) of forest products to the United States and CDN$92 million (US$88.2 million) to Europe. More than 25 million cubic meters and 43 million cubic meters of roundwood was harvested from Ontario and Quebec respectively in 2004, with most of this coming from the Boreal Forest.

What is the purpose of today's direct action?

Because the provincial government and the forest industry have failed to protect the Boreal Forest, forest workers and their communities we have are seeking to engage the international marketplace to step in take action. We are shining a spotlight on the destruction being caused by logging and pulp companies, Abitibi-Consolidated, Kruger, Bowater and SFK Pulp. Our aim is to get customers to put pressure on these companies to suspend logging in intact forests in order to create protected areas and to certify their logging operations to the internationally recognized standards of the Forest Stewardship Council. We want these companies to end their conflicts with First Nations aboriginal communities and to support forest workers with sustainable businesses.

Why is Greenpeace using this confrontational strategy?

Time is running out and the government and industry show no signs of acting. In Quebec, less than 30% of the commercial Boreal Forest remains intact and less than 5% of the province's forest is protected from industrial development. Quebec's Coulombe Commission on the future of Quebec's forests recommended that 12% of the Boreal Forest in the province be protected by 2010.

In Ontario, intact forest areas are also quickly disappearing despite overwhelming public support for forest protection and promises. The woodland caribou are facing extinction by the middle of this century.

Greenpeace has a long history of using peaceful civil disobedience to expose forest destruction, to present solutions and to drive change.

Do people in Quebec care about Boreal Forest Protection?

A new Leger Marketing poll commissioned by Greenpeace revealed that 86 per cent of Quebecers support the suspension of logging in the last remaining intact areas of Boreal Forest in the province while only 18% per cent of respondents believe that forest companies and the government of Quebec are managing forests in a way that serves the public interest and forest workers. Leger polled 1,058 adults in Quebec between August 29th and September 5th and the results are considered accurate within 3.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Why is Greenpeace focusing on the Boreal Forest in Canada? Doesn't forest destruction happen all over the world?

Greenpeace works to defend ancient forests around the globe and understands that ancient forests across the planet are in crisis. Greenpeace has highlighted deforestation in the Democratic Republic of Congo where despite a moratorium, new logging titles have been granted, is actively working to defend the Paradise Forest of Asia Pacific and continues to do work to save the Amazon rainforests. The trade in forest products is global and products from one forest are shipped all over the world. We know that decisions on what to purchase in Europe, China or the USA influence what happens in the forests of Canada and vice versa.

Why is Greenpeace aiming its campaign at businesses and not at government?

While it is government who has the power to permanently protect the Boreal Forest and legislate sustainable forestry and Greenpeace has made engaging government a key part of our Boreal campaign, the governments of Ontario and Quebec have consistently failed to protect the Boreal Forest, to support local communities and workers and to end conflicts with First Nations communities.

How is Greenpeace planning on using the power of the marketplace?

We are in dialogue with numerous customers of the logging and pulp companies named in the Consuming Canada's Boreal Forest – the chain of destruction from logging companies to consumers report. We are informing them of the practices of the companies and asking them to demand measurable change. We are pushing customers to use their financial power to pressure logging companies to make change.

How did Greenpeace use the Canadian and International marketplace in the campaign to protect the Great Bear Rainforest?

In the late 1990s, following years of blockades against destructive logging operations in the pristine valleys of this coastal temperate rainforest, environmental organizations began reaching out to the marketplace by tracking and engaging customers and investors of logging companies. Along with contract cancellations and procurement policies some companies decided to do even more. In 1999, key customers came to tour British Columbia's forests.

Their active engagement was pivotal in the future of the Great Bear Rainforest. They met with environmentalists, the logging industry and government. They saw their responsibility and opportunity to catalyze change. They supported the cessation of logging in pristine valleys of the rainforest while solutions were discussed. This space to sit down and talk while key ecological areas were off limits to logging was critical to creating new protecting areas and developing a new standard of forestry.

From 2001 to 2006, local communities, the logging and mining industries, recreational users, tourism operators, labour unions, small businesses and environmental organizations participated in meetings and collaboration that resulted in consensus recommendations on land-use in the Great Bear Rainforest. The unprecedented component in this process was the use of independent science supported by all stakeholders.

These land-use recommendations were used to inform (First Nations & Provincial) government-to-government negotiations and 18 coastal First Nations have completed and initialled land use agreements. In February 2006, the BC Government publicly announced the agreements included protection of one third of the forest from logging and a new system of forestry called, Ecosystem Based Management, to be fully implemented by March 2009.

Additionally, environmental organizations worked with philanthropic groups and governments to successfully raise $120 million for conservation and sustainable businesses for local communities and workers on the Coast. By any measure, the preservation of the Great Bear Rainforest is one of the most compelling conservation visions of our times.

Why should companies switch to the Forest Stewardship Council?

While many forest-certification schemes exist, only the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is socially responsible, rigorous, performance-based and leads to a measurable improvement in logging operations. The FSC is the most customer and government recognized certification program in the world and is the number one certification system preferred by major forest products customers.

FSC standards are nationally and ecosystem based, tailored to specific types of forests unlike most other certification schemes.
FSC standards are agreed to by the consensus of three representative chambers
- Environmental represented by conservation organizations
- Social represented by unions, forest workers and local communities
- Economic represented by logging companies and customers
- Additionally, in Canada because of the large number of First Nations communities in the forest, a fourth Aboriginal chamber is part of the FSC.
FSC certified logging companies tend to have less conflicts with aboriginal communities than companies certified to other certification schemes that do not emphasized agreement with local communities.
No one sector or chamber controls the FSC unlike other certification schemes
FSC has the strongest chain of custody on record to track the supply chain of forest products from source to end product.
In the development of the National Boreal Standard, the Canadian Forest Stewardship Council integrated a truly balanced collection of perspectives, including those of the World Wildlife Fund Canada, Forest Products Association of Canada (PFAC), the National Aboriginal Forestry Association (NAFA) and faculty from the Universities of New Brunswick and Lakehead; by contrast, neither the SFI nor the CSA included major environmental groups or Aboriginal communities in the development of their standards In fact, the Sierra Club of Canada and NAFA withdrew from the CSA development process, citing insufficient standards.
Rather than meet strict, third party set standards, SFI and CSA-certified companies are given suggested or procedural recommendations to follow, and left to form their own specific objectives.
With certified forest in over 80 countries, FSC is the only truly international standard of certification.
FSC has the most widely used and recognizable logo which allows international customers to identify products derived from responsibly managed forests.

How many hectares of forest are certified to the standards of the FSC?

More than 90 million hectares of forest in 80 countries are certified to the standards of the FSC. There are more than 4,900 FSC chain of custody certificate holders and more than 21 million hectares of forest in Canada are certified FSC. Leading FSC certified companies in Canada include Domtar, Tembec and Alberta Pacific Industries. The FSC is the fastest growing certification scheme in the world.

What certification are customers demanding?

Overwhelming, where a customer shows a preference for a certification scheme in their environmental policies, the certification is FSC. There are dozens of companies with FSC preferences including Ikea, Home Depot, Dell, Random House Canada, Hydro-Quebec, Limited Brands and Cascades. On August 5, 2007 even the Ontario Government indicated a preference for FSC-certified papers for use in government operations.

What about forest workers?

Greenpeace is not asking for the end of the forest industry in Canada but rather the reformation of this industry. We believe that logging can continue to occur in the Boreal Forest if it is done responsibly. We do not believe that the logging companies and the provincial and federal government have done a good job in supporting forest-based communities and their workers – they have effectively dropped the ball in protecting jobs and diversifying the economies of northern communities. They have not recognized the international marketplace's growing demand for sustainable forest products and have not invested profits during the ‘good times' to remain innovative and competitive. We believe that governments and industry have failed workers.

What is the history of the Greenpeace vessel, Artic Sunrise?

The Arctic Sunrise's life with Greenpeace began with the campaign to stop the dumping of oil drilling platforms at sea. Launched from the Arctic Sunrise, Greenpeace activists occupied the Brent Spar oil storage facility in the North Sea to prevent the 14,500 tonne installation from being scuttled. The action, part of an ongoing campaign to stop ocean dumping, pitted Greenpeace against the combined forces of the UK government and the world's then-largest oil company.

Since this inaugural action, the Arctic Sunrise has fought many campaigns. It has chased pirate vessels fishing illegally in the Indian Ocean, confronted polluters in the Mediterranean and whalers South Atlantic, and manoeuvred directly into the path of a Minuteman missile being tested as part of the US "Star Wars" defense system.

In the Southern Ocean, just last fall, the Arctic Sunrise was deliberately rammed and damaged by the Nisshin Maru, the factory ship of the Japanese whaling fleet, which is more than twice as long as and six times heavier than the Greenpeace vessel. The impact left the Sunrise battered and bruised but luckily no crew members were injured.

As befits her name, the Arctic Sunrise has spent much of its time in the polar regions. She has made repeated voyages to the Arctic Beaufort Sea to oppose seismic testing for new offshore oil reserves, and documented climate change both in Alaska and Greenland.

The last time the Arctic Sunrise campaigned in Canada was in 2005 when it came to oppose the production of nuclear power. Activists from the Arctic Sunrise, accompanied by local supporters in a flotilla of small boats, hung banners and dumped fake barrels of radioactive waste at Quebec's only nuclear plant, Gentilly-2.

The MY Arctic Sunrise is an ice breaker, designed to withstand the icy conditions it faced during its early life as a sealing vessel. To cut through the ice, she is built with a rounded hull and no keel. The ship is designed this way so that when she hits the ice her bow lifts up out of the water and when she comes back down, the weight of the ship breaks the ice. As a consequence, she rolls – up to 60 degrees – making her uncomfortable at times for any crew member who is prone to sea sickness.

The crow's nest is used to navigate through the ice, and in the Arctic Sunrise's former life, it was from the crow's nest that the hunters would scout for seals. Today it's a good spot for sighting polar bears and other wildlife during scientific expeditions.

The state of the art navigation equipment aboard the Arctic Sunrise is located on the bridge. Mounted above the bridge are satellites receivers, which enable Greenpeace to use email, fax and the telephone while at sea. There is also a darkroom and video editing suit on board. This equipment is essential for transmitting images of environmental crimes and violations back to land.

Quick Facts: Boreal Forest Destruction in Canada

More than 70% of the forestlands under the collective management of Abitibi-Consolidated, Bowater and Kruger have been degraded or fragmented by clearcuts and logging roads.
Over 700,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of Canada's Boreal Forest is cleared by logging each year.
Over 90 per cent of the forest cut is being ecologically and destructively clearcut, with individual cuts sometimes extending over 10,000 hectares, or 17,000 football fields.
Scientists studying woodland caribou fear that if large tracts of intact Boreal Forest are not protected, the species could be extinct in Ontario by the middle of this century. The situation is similar in Quebec.
Nearly one million hectares of forest in Quebec and 500,000 hectares of forest in Ontario had been fragmented due to logging and other development during a 12 year study period from 1989 to 2001, according to satellite mapping and analyses done by Global Forest Watch Canada,
Canada's Boreal Forest is a giant storehouse of 47.5 billion tonnes of carbon—seven times the amount of the entire world's annual fossil fuels emissions.
Older forests hold more carbon in their trees and soils.