German publisher 'Carlsen' has used a mixture of 40% recycled paper andvirgin fibres from well managed forests that have Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC®) certification (2). French publisher 'Gallimard'used 100% recycled paper for the French Canadian edition and made goodfirst steps by printing the French and Belgian editions on paper thaton average contain 50% FSC® certified virgin fibres.
"Greenpeace applauds these and all other Potter publishers around theworld who've chosen ancient forest friendly paper. Print runs for HarryPotter books are so huge that this kind of effort really helps saveancient forests," said Judy Rodrigues of GreenpeaceInternational.
In 2003, Canadian publisher, 'Raincoast Books' started greening HarryPotter when it printed 'Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix' on100% recycled paper, and repeated this initiative with 'Harry Potterand the Half-Blood Prince'. This move helped save over 67,000trees. Last summer, 'Bloomsbury' followed when it printed the UKedition on 30% FSC® certified paper, a positive first step. Israel's 'Attic and Yediot Ahronot Books' also plans to print itsedition, due out in December, on ancient forest friendly paper.
However, Dutch 'De Harmonie' and US publisher 'Scholastic' are lessprogressive. Scholastic even ignored almost 20,000 emails fromcustomers who wanted it to use ancient forest friendly paper. (3)
"It is sadly ironic that Scholastic, a children's book publisher,refused to use paper not sourced from ancient forests for this wildlypopular book. They could have saved 217,475 trees and helpedprotect our children's natural heritage instead of fostering itsdestruction," she added.
Ancient forests are essential for life on Earth but only 20% remainbecause they are being destroyed to make paper and other wood products.
The Greenpeace Book Campaign encourages all publishers to use ancientforest friendly paper. It is calling on publishers which are stilldeciding which paper to use for the latest Harry Potter, such as theCzech Republic publisher 'Albatros' and Spanish publisher 'EditorialSalamandra', to follow the lead taken by 'Raincoast Books','Bloomsbury', 'Carlsen' and 'Gallimard' and save ancient forests byusing ancient forest friendly paper.
Other contacts: Judy Rodrigues, Greenpeace International Forests Campaign, +31 646 166 299
Notes: (1) Ancient forest friendly paper uses as much recycled content as possible and only uses virgin fibres that come from Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC®) certified sources. (2) The FSC® is the only certification scheme that can ensure that the timber products you are buying come from forests that have been managed in an environmentally and socially responsible way.(3) In February 2005, Greenpeace informed US Harry Potter fans that ‘Scholastic’ was not planning to print ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ on ancient forest friendly paper. Customers reacted by sending messages to ‘Scholastic’ indicating they would prefer the U.S. edition to be printed on ancient forest friendly paper.