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Children's books about rainforests linked to rainforest destruction Jeremy Hance mongabay.com June 01, 2010 Testing paper fiber from 30 children's books, RAN found that overall 18 books were directly linked to paper products from Indonesia, and four of these had paper from natural hardwood trees in the island nation. Rainforest in Indonesia are being felled at rates only second to those in Brazil to make room for vast palm oil plantations and acacia (i.e. pulp and paper) plantations. In 15 years time (between 1990 and 2005) Indonesia has lost over 28 million hectares of forest (an area larger than New Zeland), including 21.7 hectares of old-growth forest. "Considering that many publishers have already made public commitments to reduce their environmental footprint, we were surprised by the industry-wide scope of the problem," said Lafcadio Cortesi of RAN. "We don’t think that kids and their parents want to choose between loving books and protecting the rainforest." The report also found that 9 out of 10 of the US's biggest children's books publishers are printing books on paper sourced from Indonesia. One of the largest reasons behind this is a trend for US publishers to have books printed in China to reduce expenses. In fact 50 percent of children's books printed on coated paper come from China. However China is a major importer of Indonesian paper products, including sourcing from two of the country's most controversial companies, Asian Pulp and Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resource International (APRIL). "Although our sample was relatively small and selected at random, it is notable that more than half of the books and nine of 10 book publishers had fiber linked to Indonesian rainforest destruction in their books," the report reads. RAN recommends that children's books publishers first eradicate all links in their sourcing chain to APP and APRIL. Eighty percent of Indonesia's 2.3 billion tons of CO2 produced annually is from the widespread and ongoing destruction of rainforest and peatlands for commodities like paper and palm oil. This destruction has made Indonesia the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and the US. Home to an incredibly rich biodiversity—10 percent of the world's mammals, 11 percent of the world's mammals, and 16 percent of the world's birds—Indonesia also harbors a number of endangered species including orangutans, Sumatran and Javan rhinos, Sumatran tigers, and Asian elephants. Related articles Norway's billion dollar contribution to Indonesian forests excludes national reforestation scheme (06/01/2010) Norway's billion dollar contribution to forest and peatlands conservation in Indonesia will not fund reforestation of deforested areas, a government minister told The Jakarta Post. Indonesia to revoke palm oil concession licenses under forest deal (05/31/2010) Indonesia will revoke existing forestry licenses to cut down natural forests under the billion dollar deal climate deal signed with Norway last week, reports Reuters. Indonesia announces moratorium on granting new forest concessions 
(05/28/2010) With one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, the world's third largest greenhouse gas emissions due mostly to forest loss, and with a rich biodiversity that is fighting to survive amid large-scale habitat loss, Indonesia today announced a deal that may be the beginning of stopping forest loss in the Southeast Asian country. Indonesia announced a two year moratorium on granting new concessions of rainforest and peat forest for clearing in Oslo, Norway, however concessions already granted to companies will not be stopped. The announcement came as Indonesia received 1 billion US dollars from Norway to help the country stop deforestation.
Tags: indonesia southeast asia asia green environment biodiversity endangered species saving species from extinction deforestation rainforests Rainforest deforestation palm oil jeremy hance ecosystem services ecological services environmental services forests China's Environmental Problems china's demand for resources china rainforest rainforest animals rainforest destruction rainforest logging plantations saving rainforests threats to rainforests threats to the rainforest tropical forests united states wildlife animals Environmental news index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements:
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