14 DAY TRIAL // Accusations that Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) and Pt Smart Tbk, units of the Sinar Mas group, are clearing virgin rainforests and peatlands had a huge impact on international companies like Unilever or Nestle. Along with other several palm oil buyers, they announced that they will stop buying from Sinar Mas if Greenpeace's accusations are proven to be true.
In a report released on Tuesday, Greenpeace blames the Indonesian company of cutting down rainforests and secretly planning to expand its pulp and paper production from 2 million to 17,5 million tons a year. If this is proven true, Sinar Mas group would break a billion-dollar agreement between Indonesia and Norway, a deal that tried to limit climate change by imposing a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear virgin forests and peatland.
The Greenpeace report, called "How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet", says that Asia Pulp searched for more than a million hectares in new concessions - 900,000 hectares in the Sumatran provinces of Riau and Jambi alone. It added that much of the land set aside and cleared interfered with endangered-species habitats. This report speaks of Asia Pulp clearing peatlands more than three meters in depth. In Indonesia this is illegal because the land made up of semi decomposed vegetation releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases when burned or drained.
Asia Pulp’s sustainability chief, Aida Greenbury, denied the charges. She said that the company did not use wood from “high conservation value” forests, including deep peat and major endangered-species habitats. She added that 85 percent of the wood used by the company comes from plantations and the rest from degraded land or lower-value forests.
The environmental organization criticized several multinational companies such as Tesco, Walmart, Hewlett Packard, Carrefour, KFC, Campbell Soup Company, Dunkin' Donuts, Pizza Hut and cosmetic firm Shiseido, for buying from Sinar Mas and advised them to suspend collaboration with the group.
Rainforests' and peatlands' preservation is crucial for preventing dangerous climate chance, for this helps trap huge amounts of greenhouse gases.