Greenpeace Can’t Prove Indonesian Rainforest Used for Packaging: Asia Pulp & Paper

Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 7 Nov 11;

Environment group Greenpeace Asia Pacific is sticking to claims that paper company Asia Pulp & Paper used Indonesian rainforest fiber in toy packaging.

Following a press release from APP rejecting the claim, Greenpeace’s forest campaigner Bustar Maitar said the activists stood by their assertion.

In its release, APP said that Greenpeace had sent samples of paper packaging APP made for toys such as Barbie to be analyzed to determine the origin of its raw materials.

According to APP, the US-based paper-testing company, Integrated Paper Services, never made any determination about the country of origin of fibers in the products it analyzed for Greenpeace.

APP quoted part of a letter from IPS responding to a query about the testing. “IPS is only able to determine the types of fibers present in such samples,” Bruce Shafer, chief executive of IPS, was quoted as saying by APP.

“We have not, and are unable to, identify country of origin of the samples. Therefore, we are unable to comment on the credibility of the statements Greenpeace has made regarding country of origin.”

IPS added that it stood by the finding that the samples contained mixed tropical hardwood. Finding mixed tropical hardwood in paper indicates that at least some of the raw materials originated in natural forests with high biodiversity — mixed species — rather than from monoculture pulpwood plantations.

Since APP’s paper mills are all in Indonesia, Greenpeace argued that the mixed tropical hardwood found in APP’s products logically must have come from Indonesian forests.

“In their [APP] release, IPS does not deny that they found mixed tropical hardwood. We sent IPS samples of APP products, so where did the tropical hardwood come from if not from Indonesian forests?” Bustar said.

APP’s Aida Greenbury told the Jakarta Globe that the packaging contained both recycled fiber and sustainably certified fiber, which meant the mixed tropical hardwood could have come from overseas.

“Some of the recycled materials are imported, as per standard practice in the paper industry worldwide,” Aida said.

“We think Greenpeace owes the global toy industry an explanation. It has campaigned against them to stop doing business with both APP and Indonesia on the basis of a completely unsubstantiated and false claim.”