Spicers Paper New Zealand has been linked with Sinar Mas which
Greenpeace has labelled as one of the leading forest and climate
destroyer in Indonesia.
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.
Greenpeace New Zealand communications manager Suzette Jackson,
who was working In Indonesia earlier this month to stop
deforestation, said it was appalling that two New Zealand
companies had been identified as aiding rainforest destruction
within the last few months.
"Fonterra and Spicers represent themselves as being sustainable
when obviously they are not."
Greenpeace forests campaigner Grant Rosoman said it was
disappointing that Spicers continued to stock papers from suppliers
involved in forest and climate destruction as, in the past decade,
it had been a leader in the reform of the paper sector.
"Spicers must stop buying paper from Sinar Mas owned Asia Pulp
and Paper and its rival APRIL until they halt their expansion into
forest and peatland areas. Spicers also needs to set out an
ambitious time bound plan to source environmentally and socially
responsible virgin fibre that can be guaranteed through credible
independent certification to the standards of the Forest
Stewardship Council."
Greenpeace yesterday ended a 27-hour dramatic non-violent direct
action at the loading facility of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). The
activity, undertaken by activists from 11 different nationalities,
including Indonesia and the USA successfully focused international
attention on the critical role that President Yudhoyono and other
world Heads of State can play in ending tropical deforestation to
avert climate chaos.
"Ten days ahead of the critical climate summit in Copenhagen,
President Yudhoyono has a unique chance to make history by
declaring an immediate moratorium on all deforestation and
exhibiting the kind of leadership that even the Nobel Prize winning
Obama has so far failed to show," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia
Executive Director Von Hernandez.
Two weeks ago Greenpeace took action against Indonesia's other
large pulp and paper mill APRIL to expose the continued destruction
of fragile peatlands of Kampar peninsula on the Island of Sumatra.
(1) Last week, the Indonesia's Forest Minister, Mr. Zulkifli Hasan,
suspended APRIL's logging license pending a review of the its
permits. (2)
Indonesia is the world's third largest climate polluter after
China and the US, mainly as a result of the ongoing destruction of
its forests and their peat soils. Globally, a million hectares of
forests are destroyed every month - that is an area the size of a
football pitch every two seconds.
Other contacts: Greenpeace New Zealand communications manager Suzette Jackson, 021 614 899
Notes: (1) Combined, APRIL and APP control 73% of Indonesia’s total pulp capacity and own two of the world’s largest pulp mills.
(2) http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AP01620091126
For a map and photographic evidence of current active clearing of peatland forest by APP please go here: http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/id/photosvideos/photos/APP-clearing
For further information please see: http://www.greenpeace.org/climatedefenders
Exp. contact date: 2009-11-27 00:00:00