A new joint report from the world's largest packaging and viscose paper producer says some of the world's largest rainforests are at risk.
Pulping Borneo, Greenpeace, Environmental Paper Network, and others allege that Royal Golden Eagle violated its own no-logs policy on the Seteri and Asia Pacific systems. Paper and packaging companies, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (known as APRIL), Asia Mark and Brussels; And the associated "chain of offshore shell companies."
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Using satellite imagery and company and supplier data, the report found that a pulp mill owned by a Singapore-based corporation headquartered in China used wood from a company that cleared rainforests on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Borneo, home to the endangered orangutan subspecies.
Greenpeace and others. Others include the Asian Symbol Pulp and Paper Mill in Zizhao, China in 2010. In 2021 and 2022, it will source wood from a rainforest clearing plant in Kalimantan through PT Balikpapan Chip Lestari, a company allegedly linked to RGE. Woodchip suppliers have cleared 37,105 hectares of natural forests in Central, East and North Kalimantan, “twice the size of Singapore” since the RGE Forestry, Fiber, Pulp and paper. ""
The firm cited corporate documents confirming its ties to PT Phoenix Resources International's new "large" pulp mill currently under construction in northeast Kalimantan. According to the environmental impact assessment of the project, the plant will have two lines capable of producing 1.7 million tons of semi-pulp per year. It is estimated that at least 3.3 million tons of green wood fiber per year will be required after full use. According to the report, this will put "new pressure" on Indonesia's natural forests, which will encourage the transformation of natural forests and peatlands into sustainable timber monoculture farms.
The most vulnerable forest areas are currently located in Balikpapan Chip Lestari provinces in North, East and Central Kalimantan, as well as in forest concessions associated with RGE companies in South Papua and West Papua.
“This factory is a new sign of industrial deforestation, this time in Kalimantan and Papua,” said Siarul Fitra, senior attorney at Greenpeace Indonesia. “In Sumatra, the demand for timber from large factories has led to irreversible deforestation. Now the same can be repeated in Kalimantan, starting with this new large pulp mill.
RGE said the group, including LinkedIn profiles, disputed the report's premise that PT Balikpapan Chip Lestari and PT Phoenix Resources International "are under joint control."
"This individual's previous employment with our group of companies is presented in the report as an indication of an ongoing relationship with RGE," the company said in a statement. “We operate in a free and open labor market where our employees decide to join or leave the company. None of the arguments contained in the report establishes a relationship or any kind of "control" over these companies.
Because "there is no such relationship, influence or control" over PT Balikpapan Chip Lestari and PT Phoenix Resources International, "RGEE cannot or should not comment on matters about which these parties are not involved," RGEE added.
RGE, which recently launched a five-year partnership with Singapore's Nanyang Technological University to create a city-friendly textile recycling system, said the group will work towards sustainable development of the timber, fiber, pulp and paper industries. It includes a ban on deforestation. Each group is encouraged to develop and implement its own sustainable development policy “within the context of operations and consistent with the overall RGE framework”, including the ambitious 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, which are intended to complement national and global goals. It contributes to the climate, nature conservation and sustainable development sectors. . development".
But Sergio Baffoni, senior coordinator of the Local Paper Network, is not convinced.
“RGE Group and its subsidiaries APRIL, Sateri, Asia Pacific Rayon and Asia Symbol have promised that RGE companies will stop deforestation in the supply chain, but as this report shows, those promises have not been kept,” he said. “Ordinary people around the world use the company's products in their daily lives: viscose in international fashion brands, in paper packaging in grocery stores and in napkins in our kitchens and bathrooms.”
That year, Lori Parsons, a professor at Royal Holloway University of London, co-authored a scathing report linking bold brands like H&M, Levi Strauss and Ralph Lauren to Cambodia's 2021 deforestation. This is a true testament to how long and complex supply chains that support global production can undermine sustainable consumption efforts.
“Deforestation is a major undertaking in many sectors, from apparel to building materials, but often in these supply chains, large-scale deforestation is not an open secret,” he said. He said. . “The main problem in this is the decline in world production, which has risen sharply in recent decades. Leading companies are no longer legally liable to their supply partners, meaning that neither party has significant control over the supply chain of a particular product.
One of the problems, according to Parsons, is the mismatch of law enforcement standards.
“While governments in the Global North are almost universally implementing only voluntary standards in the income supply chain — so-called emissions 3 or environmental impact — global manufacturing still has important incentives to exploit areas of the Global South where governance is weak. offset the costs." “This is the worst environment, when cheap goods turn into a global manufacturing desert,” he said.
Finding enough viscose from a reliable source is not easy, says Samantha Taylor, founder of Good Factory, a British sportswear manufacturer.
“When I was in the industry, we had a shortage of viscose due to environmentally friendly production methods,” he says. “When there is a need, there is always someone who is ready to provide the law. We have seen similar results with other fibers - just one example from organic cotton.
The only way to prevent deforestation in protected areas, Taylor says, is to control how much primary production is allowed to be produced each year and invest in alternative solutions such as fines for processing and overproduction.
“Even if RGE tries to deny the accusations, I think they will wait until the story disappears in the fast news cycle, but I hope brands start to understand that they are facing this,” he said. But without a marketing budget commensurate with the brand in question or broad legislative support, it will quickly become difficult to stop. Because if a company can't profit from CO2 emissions, trees aren't worth as much as they are worth in the ground.
Nicole Rycroft, founder and CEO of logging nonprofit Canopy, said this is not the first lawsuit against RGE in years. In his organization's Hot Button 2022 report, which ranks neighborhood producers based on environmental efforts, Sateri received 19 out of 35 "buttons" that indicate a degree of "perceived risk." In the Asia-Pacific region, things were worse - 9.5 keys.
"The days of radiation from high-carbon, high-biodiversity forests should be behind us," he said, calling the report "frightening." “Market tolerance for problems and supply disruptions is rapidly declining. Reports such as Pulping Borneo highlight the need to accelerate and scale up the transition to next-generation low-carbon solutions.
Rycroft said Canopy will file charges against RGE, Sateri and Asia Pacific as they work with them on their Hot Button 2023 profiles in the coming months, as well as non-governmental organizations contributing to the report.
“In this critical decade for our planet, any deforestation that is high in carbon and high in biodiversity is a step in the wrong direction,” he said. “With many forests protected for climate stability and biodiversity, and forest resources constrained by regulations, competing uses and wildfires, continued reliance on forest fiber suppliers could face growing challenges,” he said.
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