Save the Indonesian Rainforests
Member organisations of the European Environmental Paper Network are working together to stop paper products being sold in Europe that have come from forest destruction in Indonesia.
The Indonesian forests are the homes of communities of indigenous and other peoples whose livelihoods depend on forest resources. They are rich in biodiversity, including rare species such as Sumatran tigers, orang-utans, elephants and rhinos. Many of the remaining rainforests grow on deep peat soils, which release massive amounts of carbon when laid bare by logging and used for intensive tree production. The destruction of Indonesia’s forests and conversion to pulp plantations is therefore a huge social, environmental and climate disaster and working together to stop it is the EEPN’s top priority.
The EEPN believes that paper linked to massive deforestation represents exactly the opposite of the values and the solutions identified in the Common Vision for Transforming the European Paper Industry. For this reason, the EEPN is engaged in a global campaign to stop the expansion of such products into our markets, until the paper industry publicly commits to immediately stop natural forest conversion, and to adequately compensate local communities impacted by their practices.
Launching the campaign, 40 European NGOs from Italy, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Portugal, Malta, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland co-signed a letter to the paper industry demanding a stop to any purchase of paper from deforestation in Indonesia and adoption of a responsible paper procurement policy.
In 2012 we wrote joint letters to banks and European Export Credit Agencies, calling on them not to invest in new pulp mills that will inevitably cause more Indonesian deforestation. We also hosted a tour by a delegation of Indonesian activists to Europe (Indonesians Tour report)
As a result of our campaign, many companies have stopped buying paper coming from deforestation in Indonesia, and in a major breakthrough in early 2013, the major paper producer in the area, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), announced a new forest policy. EEPN has since led joint work among NGOs to produce a number of milestones that this company needs to meet before being acceptable to customers again.
Meanwhile, however, deforestation continues at the hand of other companies, including Asia Pacific Resources Limited (APRIL). Forest destruction and plantation developments are expanding from Sumatra to Borneo and New Guinea, pushing three highly endangered species – the Sumatran tiger, elephant and orang-utan – closer to extinction. Acacia plantations are also expanding from Indonesia to Vietnam and Laos.
EEPN is co-ordinating a pan-European campaigning effort, promoting grassroots actions, keeping information flowing, and ensuring good links between our member organisations and their key activists. We will continue until we have shut down the European market for paper linked to deforestation.
We will publish updates and further information on this campaign here on a regular basis. So stay tuned!
If you or your organisation want to get active in this campaign, or to find out more, please drop us a line: