Finnish paper company to sever ties with logging firm linked to rainforest destruction in Indonesia

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Finnish paper company to sever ties with logging firm linked to rainforest destruction in Indonesia
mongabay.com
November 13, 2009

Finnish paper company UPM-Kymmene will stop buying paper pulp from Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Limited (APRIL) due to concerns over the company's poor environmental record, reports Greenpeace. UPM-Kymmene contact's represents 4 percent of APRIL's total pulp production, worth over US$55 million annually, according to the environmental group.

Environmentalists have linked APRIL to destructive logging practices in Indonesia, including destruction of carbon-dense peatlands — illegal under Indonesain law — and converting biodiverse rainforest into acacia plantations to supply the pulp mills.

Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s rainforest campaigner, said that if reports about UPM-Kymmene cancellation of its contract with APRIL prove accuate it will put pressure on other companies to also abandon links with the logging company.

A group of Greenpeace activists unfurled a 20x30 meter banner in a freshly destroyed area of rainforest urging Obama to take strong leadership and work closely with other Heads of State to help avert a climate crisis. Another group locked themselves to seven excavators to halt rainforest destruction.

"If international companies start distancing themselves from this environmental disaster, the call the end global deforestation here and around the globe will only get louder and louder," Maitar said in a statement. "It is not only one of the quickest and most cost effective ways to combat climate change but is essential in order to avert runway climate change in our lifetime."

Greenpeace is campaigning for protection for Indonesia's forests at its "Climate Defenders Camp" in Sumatra.

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activism environmental activism sumatra deforestation logging plantations peatlands rainforests forests indonesia corporate role in conservation forestry green environment

CITATION:
mongabay.com (November 13, 2009). Finnish paper company to sever ties with logging firm linked to rainforest destruction in Indonesia. http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1113-april_greenpeace.html

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