Chinese Environmental Paper Network

China is the world’s biggest producer and consumer of paper, making and using more than 100 million tonnes of paper and board annually. It is the biggest importer of recovered paper and producer of recycled paper. (1)

Chinese financiers are crucial to the future of the global paper industry through their investments in the next generation of pulp and paper mills. It is therefore vital for civil society to be aware of, and able to influence, the Chinese paper industry.

Paper was invented in China more than 2000 years ago, and there is a rich heritage of paper-making and use in Chinese society. China has considerable technical knowledge and long experience of sustainable paper making from agricultural fibres, with two-thirds of world production. There is much that the rest of the world can learn from China about paper. However, the Chinese paper industry is in a situation of rapid transformation and growth, and it has significant environmental and social impacts.

The Environmental Paper Networks of North America and Europe have been joined by a Chinese network of civil society organisations – the Chinese Environmental Paper Network (CEPN). The network is co-ordinated by one of its member organisations, Green Camel Bell, with the support of a working group.

Some of the most important issues that the CEPN is concerned about are as follows.

• Pollution of water from untreated mill effluent.
• Unsustainable sourcing of fibre for mills.
• Imports of pulp from countries causing deforestation.
• Insufficient levels of waste paper recovery.
• Wasteful paper use.

The CEPN is also working with the EPN and EEPN on a global project about paper linked to Indonesian deforestation. The aim is to limit the Chinese market for such paper. We are also working together on a global strategy to influence investors not to support unsustainable new pulp mills.

(1) Food and Agriculture Organisation Forest Products Yearbook 2011, p77. http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3252m/i3252m00.pdf