Asia Pulp & Paper's supplier Wirakarya Sakti Sakti (WKS) will end its relationship with a security contractor implicated in the killing of a villager in Jambi, says the Indonesian forestry…
An acacia plantation that was burned in Riau by villagers seeking to establish an oil palm plantation. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Indonesian police are investigating the brutal killing of…
An excavator piles natural forest logs at a log pond. Photo © Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace Banking giant Santander says it will not extend further financing to Asia Pacific Resources…
Illegally logged rainforest tree in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Amid government schemes to curb illegal land clearing and systematically enhance a struggling…
Recent large-scale clearance of peatland forest inside a PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (PT RAPP) pulpwood concession on Pulau Pedang, Bengkalis Regency, Riau Province. © Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace.…
Zero deforestation yet to go mainstream Deforestation for woodpulp production in Sumatra, Indonesia While a number of high profile companies have adopted policies designed to exclude deforestation from their commodity…
First of its kind audit of world's largest pulp and paper producer yields mixed results Arara Abadi acacia plantation near Pekanbaru, Riau, Sumatra. All photos by Rhett A. Butler. An…
Sumatra is home to many threatened and unique species, such as the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii). Photo by Rhett A. Butler. For over a decade, a conflict has…
Excavators beside a canal cutting through recently deforested peatland. © Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace A year after it pledged a dramatic shift in how it operates in Indonesia's fast dwindling…
Deforestation in Riau, Sumatra in 2014. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. When Indonesia's former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared a moratorium in May 2012 on the issuance of new permits…
Acacia plantation on a peat soils Riau, Sumatra. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The Indonesian Ministry of the Environment and Forestry has announced it will further hobble its peatlands protection…
Deforestation in Riau. Photo by Rhett Butler Roughly half of Indonesia's natural forest loss occurs outside officially designated concession areas, concludes a new assessment that also finds higher deforestation rates…
While Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) has made some strides towards becoming more environmentally conscious, conservation organizations are still concerned about continued deforestation as demand for dissolving pulp grows. Graffiti on…
Recent large-scale clearance of peatland forest inside a PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (PT RAPP) pulpwood concession on Pulau Pedang. © Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace. Asia Pacific Resources International…
Peat forest in Riau, Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A Butler. New Indonesian president Joko Widodo has ordered the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to review licenses for companies that have…
Adult male Sumatran orangutan in Gunung Leuser NP. Photos by Rhett Butler. A forest that is the only place where rhinos, tigers, elephants, and orangutans coexist is under threat from…
100 million trees are cut down every year to make dissolving pulp for clothing, toothpaste, food Dissolving pulp is not just a threat to the forests of Indonesia. It is…
Pulp and paper plantation in Sumatra. Photo by Rhett Butler. Several more clothing companies have committed to eliminate fiber produced via destruction of endangered forests, adding momentum to a zero…
Excavator working an APP supplier plantation in Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Butler. While Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) has made considerable progress on addressing social and environmental problems associated with…
Peatlands drained for a plantation in Riau. An inter-agency audit of 17 plantation and timber concessions in Riau Province, Indonesia, found that every company is failing to meet fire prevention…
Forest clearing for plantations resulting in massive habitat loss If “dissolving pulp” evokes nothing for you, you’re not alone. Not many people have heard of it, and the very term…
Deforestation for oil palm in Sumatra A group of palm oil and timber companies that have pledged to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains have agreed to establish a standard…
APP supplier concession in Riau Province, Indonesia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Indonesian forestry giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) won't need to clear additional forests to meet pulp requirements…
Greenpeace Canada has filed a Statement of Defense in response to a $7 million lawsuit by Resolute Forest Products (NYSE:RFP) over allegations that the logging company destroyed forests in Quebec…
Fires on deforested land trigger massive GHG emissions, haze Light haze over a drained and deforested peat forest in Riau, Sumatra in February 2014. Photo by Rhett Butler. Air pollution…
Forest fires displacing wildlife, endangering human lives across Southeast Asia Every year, thousands of hectares of Indonesian forest are illegally burned by development companies. However, Indonesia’s Minister of Environment, Balthasar…
APP supplier concession in Riau Province Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) will not acquire companies that continue to destroy forests, according to a new procedure for association introduced by the…
New forest clearing for an oil palm plantation in Sumatra. Photo taken in May 2014 by Rhett Butler. How to best use Indonesia’s land resources? This is one of the…
Indonesia now has the highest deforestation rate in the world, topping even Brazil which has more than five times the natural forest cover. Background photo: rainforest in Sumatra. Despite a…