Golden Agri-refutes Greenpeace charge of unsustainable deforestation practices

Ephraim Seow Channel NewsAsia 6 Jul 10;

SINGAPORE: Golden Agri-Resources and its subsidiary, PT SMART, have refuted the latest allegations by Greenpeace that they are engaging in unsustainable deforestation practices.

In a filing to the Singapore Exchange, PT SMART said contrary to Greenpeace's statements, SMART is against burning and had established a zero burning policy in 1997, ahead of the Indonesian government.

It has also engaged two leading certification bodies, Control Union Certification and BSI Group, to verify earlier claims made by Greenpeace.

In April, Greenpeace had accused Golden Agri-Resources of lying to shareholders about its environmental standards.

PT SMART added that it is a responsible company that is committed to producing sustainable palm oil.

It also said as a business, it complies with national laws and regulations as well as the principles and criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil or RSPO.

It notes that Golden Agri-Resources aims to obtain RSPO certification for all of its existing palm oil operating units by 2015. -CNA/vm

Greenpeace urges firms to boycott Sinar Mas
Victoria Vaughan Straits Times 7 Jul 10;

GREENPEACE wants companies to drop Singapore-listed palm oil firm Golden Agri Resources and Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) as suppliers in retaliation for what it calls their environmental damage.

A new report from the green group has accused them of destroying rainforest, peatland and tiger habitats on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The firms come under the brand name Sinar Mas.

The Greenpeace report, How Sinar Mas Is Pulping The Planet, says Golden Agri supplies palm oil to the Campbell Soup Company, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Dunkin Donuts.

APP supplies pulp and paper products to supermarket giants Carrefour, Walmart, Tesco, fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken, while the magazines National Geographic, CNN Traveller, Cosmo Girl, Elle, Esquire and Marie Claire use its paper, according to Greenpeace.

Golden Agri faced similar criticisms from Greenpeace at a press conference in Singapore held just before the company's annual general meeting in April.

Although the impact of the latest report remains to be seen, Unilever, Nestle and Kraft suspended multi-million dollar palm oil contracts with Golden Agri last year following accusations by Greenpeace.

Golden Agri also suspended two plantation managers and is carrying out an external audit to be published later this month.

Mr Martin Baker, the communications director for Greenpeace South-east Asia, said those companies supplied by Golden Agri and APP are at varying stages of working towards committing to a sustainable supply chain. He added that Sinar Mas was targeted as it is the largest company responsible for deforestation in Indonesia.

Mr Daud Dharsono, the president director of Smart, the firm that runs the oil palm plantations for Golden Agri, said it was committed to sourcing oil sustainably and that it supports the two-year moratorium on deforestation announced by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in May.

'This initiative will enhance Smart's own efforts in preserving primary forests, peat land and protecting biodiversity in Indonesia,' said Mr Dharsono.

'The two-year moratorium is an opportunity to review and strengthen Indonesia's policies such as land reconciliation and greenhouse gas emission measurements,' he said.

Greenpeace slams Sinar Mas over deforestation
Business Times 7 Jul 10;

(JAKARTA) Greenpeace yesterday levelled new accusations of rainforest destruction against Indonesian agribusiness giant Sinar Mas and urged retailers Carrefour and Walmart to stop buying their products.

Several top palm oil buyers, including Unilever and Nestle, have said they will stop buying from Sinar Mas after earlier Greenpeace accusations stated that Sinar Mas units such as pulp and paper firm APP and palm oil producer PT Smart Tbk cleared virgin rainforests and peatlands.

Preservations of rainforests and peatlands, which trap huge amounts of greenhouse gases, is seen as key to preventing dangerous climate change.

Another major Sinar Mas customer, Cargill Inc has also said it will stop buying from the Indonesian firm if allegations of rainforest logging are proven.

In a report titled 'How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet', released yesterday, Greenpeace said it had confidential APP documents suggesting that the firm did not intend to fulfil a promise to source its wood from plantations alone after 2009.

'Pulping the Planet reveals from analysis of Indonesian government and confidential Sinar Mas maps and data, as well as on-the-ground investigations, that APP continues to acquire and destroy rainforest and peatland to feed its two pulp mills in Sumatra,' the environmental group said in the report, referring to once forest-clad western Indonesian island.

'While the overall capacity of its two pulp mills in Sumatra was 2.6 million tonnes per year in 2006, the Sinar Mas document indicates that APP was proposing to raise that to 17.5 million tonnes per year, a sevenfold increase in APP's pulp capacity in Indonesia.'

APP's sustainability spokeswoman, Aida Greenbury, told Reuters she was not aware of any plans to increase production to that level.

'To raise it to 17 million tonnes would require roughly eight million hectares of area and that's ridiculous,' she said by telephone. 'I would like to see this confidential document and make sure it is not a fabrication.'

Greenpeace said Sinar Mas, which also owns Singapore's Golden Agri-Resources, was aiming to expand into forests that shelter endangered Sumatran tigers, as well as into deep, carbon-rich peatlands.

Sinar Mas' palm oil unit, Pt Smart Tbk, issued a statement saying it was 'committed not to plant oil palm trees on peatland, primary forests nor convert land with high conservation value'. Smart's president director, Daud Dharsono, urged its customers to await the results of an investigation into earlier Greenpeace accusations, by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) - an industry body of planters, consumers and green groups - which are expected in July.

'We have been in touch with all our customers on our sustainability practices and request that they continue to seek clarity directly with us should they have any concerns,' he said.

Greenpeace called on supermarket chains Tesco, Walmart and Carrefour to stop buying APP paper products and urged food firms Campbell Soup Company, Dunkin' Donuts and Pizza Hut, as well as cosmetics firm Shiseido, to stop buying Sinar Mas palm oil. -- Reuters

Greenpeace Names and Shames Companies over Indonesia Paper
Jakarta Globe 7 Jul 10;

Major foreign firms like Walmart and KFC are contributing to forest destruction and the loss of species like Sumatran tigers by buying from Indonesian paper giant Sinar Mas, Greenpeace said Tuesday.

It said Sinar Mas subsidiary Asia Pulp and Paper was “relentlessly trashing rainforests” and driving species to extinction in the Southeast Asian archipelago.

“Sinar Mas’s sustainability commitments’ are not worth the paper they are written on and some of the world’s best known brands are literally pulping the planet by buying from them,” Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner Bustar Maitar said in a statement.

A Greenpeace report called “How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet” accuses major international companies of being complicit in the rampant destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands by buying from APP.

It accused Sinar Mas of illegal logging in sensitive areas on Sumatra island, where lowland forests have been decimated by years of deforestation.

One of the areas, the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape, is home to endangered Sumatran tigers and orangutans.

The other area, Kerumutan, is covered in peatlands which are a “key defence against climate change” because they lock in carbon that is released into the atmosphere when the forest cover is removed by logging, Greenpeace said.

“Some of the forest’s peat is deeper than three metres and thus illegal to clear under Indonesian law,” Greenpeace said.

“Sinar Mas’s paper arm APP uses the logs from these rainforest areas to feed its Sumatran based pulp mills, which export pulp and paper products worldwide.”

The destruction of rainforests and peatlands is the main reason Indonesia is considered the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Agence France-Presse

Greenpeace names, shames companies over Indonesia paper
Stephen Coates Yahoo News 6 Jul 10;

JAKARTA (AFP) – Greenpeace on Tuesday accused foreign firms like Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco of contributing to forest destruction and species loss in Indonesia by buying from paper and palm oil giant Sinar Mas.

The environmental group said Sinar Mas subsidiary Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) was "relentlessly trashing rainforests", spewing carbon into the atmosphere and driving species to extinction in the Southeast Asian archipelago.

"Sinar Mas's 'sustainability commitments' are not worth the paper they are written on and some of the world's best known brands are literally pulping the planet by buying from them," Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner Bustar Maitar said in a statement.

A Greenpeace report titled "How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet" accuses major international companies of being complicit in the rampant destruction of Indonesia's rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands by buying from APP.

Companies listed as Sinar Mas customers include French supermarket chains Carrefour and Auchan, US retail giant Walmart, British supermarket Tesco, British retail group WH Smith, US electronics giant Hewlett Packard, US fast-food chain KFC, Dutch Office supplies company Corporate Express and Australian global paper supplier PaperlinX.

National Geographic was named as among the magazine publishers that used Sinar Mas paper, along with CNN Traveller, Cosmo Girl, ELLE, Esquire and Marie Claire.

In addition to timber and paper products, Sinar Mas also allegedly uses unsustainable logging practices to make way for palm oil plantations that are seen as a major threat to Indonesian biodiversity.

Greenpeace said buyers of Sinar Mas palm oil included commodity traders Cargill of the United States and Wilmar of Singapore, as well as Japanese cosmetics producer Shiseido and US firms Campbell Soup Company, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts and Pizza Hut.

"Greenpeace urges all companies still doing business with APP to stop their business with them. By not doing business with APP, those companies help in stopping destruction of forests and peatlands in Indonesia," Maitar said.

He praised Unilever, Kraft and Nestle for dropping palm oil supplies from Sinar Mas affiliates, but said Carrefour still sold Sinar Mas palm oil products in its Indonesia stores.

Carrefour, Staples, Office Depot and Woolworths (Australia) had stopped buying or selling paper products connected to APP, while companies including Kimberly Clark, Kraft, Nestle and Unilever were reviewing contracts with APP.

APP sustainability director Aida Greenbury rejected the report, saying: "If they have the evidence then show it to the public".

"It hasn't been investigated properly. It's biased because it hasn't listened to all parties," she told AFP.

Sinar Mas and APP insist they are committed to sustainability but Greenpeace accuses them of breaking promises to source all pulpwood from timber plantations after 2009.

One of the APP logging areas studied in the Greenpeace report was the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape, home to endangered Sumatran tigers and orangutans.

Another area, Kerumutan, was covered in peatlands that lock in carbon that causes global warming when it enters the atmosphere as a result of logging and clearing.

The destruction of rainforests and peatlands is the main reason Indonesia is considered the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently announced a two-year moratorium on new forest concessions in exchange for one billion dollars in aid from Norway, conditional on verifiable cuts to greenhouse emissions.

But Greenpeace has joined other concerned groups in questioning the value of such commitments from a country that freely acknowledges massive corruption across its forestry sector leading to rampant illegal logging.

"Millions of hectares (acres) of forests including hundreds of thousands of hectares under Sinar Mas control are not part of the deal with Norway. This loophole will undermine all attempts to reduce Indonesia's emissions," Maitar said.

Indonesia's Sinar Mas "Clearing Rainforest": Group
Sunanda Creagh Reuters 7 Jul 10;

Greenpeace leveled on Tuesday new accusations of rainforest destruction against Indonesian agribusiness giant Sinar Mas and urged retailers Carrefour and Walmart to stop buying their products.

Several top palm oil buyers, including Unilever and Nestle, have said they will stop buying from Sinar Mas after earlier Greenpeace accusations that Sinar Mas units such as pulp and paper firm APP and palm oil producer PT Smart Tbk cleared virgin rainforests and peatlands.

Preservations of rainforests and peatlands, which trap huge amounts of greenhouse gases, is seen as key to preventing dangerous climate change.

Another major Sinar Mas customer, Cargill Inc has also said it will stop buying from the Indonesian firm if allegations of rainforest logging are proven.

In a report titled 'How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet', released on Tuesday, Greenpeace said it had confidential APP documents suggesting that the firm did not intend to fulfill a promise to source its wood from plantations alone after 2009.

"Pulping the Planet reveals from analysis of Indonesian government and confidential Sinar Mas maps and data, as well as on-the-ground investigations, that APP continues to acquire and destroy rainforest and peatland to feed its two pulp mills in Sumatra," the environmental group said in the report, referring to once forest-clad western Indonesian island.

"While the overall capacity of its two pulp mills in Sumatra was 2.6 million (metric) tons per year in 2006, the Sinar Mas document indicates that APP was proposing to raise that to 17.5 million (metric) tons per year, a sevenfold increase in APP's pulp capacity in Indonesia."

"RIDICULOUS"

APP's sustainability spokeswoman, Aida Greenbury, told Reuters she was not aware of any plans to increase production to that level.

"To raise it to 17 million (metric) tons would require roughly 8 million hectares of area and that's ridiculous," she said by telephone. "I would like to see this confidential document and make sure it is not a fabrication."

Greenpeace said Sinar Mas, which also owns Singapore's Golden Agri-Resources, was aiming to expand into forests that shelter endangered Sumatran tigers, as well as into deep, carbon-rich peatlands.

Sinar Mas' palm oil unit, Pt Smart Tbk, issued a statement saying it was "committed not to plant oil palm trees on peatland, primary forests nor convert land with high conservation value."

Smart's president director, Daud Dharsono, urged its customers to await the results of an investigation into earlier Greenpeace accusations, by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) -- an industry body of planters, consumers and green groups -- which are expected in July.

"We have been in touch with all our customers on our sustainability practices and request that they continue to seek clarity directly with us should they have any concerns," he said.

Greenpeace called on supermarket chains Tesco, Walmart and Carrefour to stop buying APP paper products and urged food firms Campbell Soup Company, Dunkin' Donuts and Pizza Hut, as well as cosmetics firm Shiseido, to stop buying Sinar Mas palm oil.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)