Posted on 15 February
2012 - Pekanbaru, Sumatra – Gland, Switzerland:
Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) claims of independent
sustainability certification for its operations
aren’t supported by the certification schemes
and assessors it has nominated, a WWF survey
has found.
None of these certifications
cover the most controversial operations
of the APP’s wood suppliers – mass clearing
of native forests which are home to critically
endangered tigers, elephants and orang-utans
and clearing and drainage of peat areas
which result in massive greenhouse gas emissions.
The certification schemes cited by APP cover
some, but far from all, supplier timber
plantations – but none considered whether
plantation establishment involved the clearing
of high conservation value forest or whether
traditional forest owners had given their
“free, prior and informed consent” to forest
clearance or plantation establishment.
Another blow to APP global greenwash campaign
“None of the certifiers are prepared to
back APP’s claim that their certifications
demonstrate its sustainability. This is
another blow to the credibility of APP’s
massive global greenwash campaign,” said
WWF International forest programme director
Rod Taylor.
On a weekend APP announcement that they
would implement measures to ensure US consumers
did not have to choose between tigers and
toilet paper, Taylor said the company had
a long record of broken promises and he
would wait for actual evidence of a company
halt to natural forest clearing.
“No amount of public relations can change
the fact that APP has bulldozed through
their own 2004, 2007 and 2009 deadlines
to stop feeding Sumatra’s natural forests
through its pulp mills.
“Recent revelations that APP is developing
the world’s biggest pulp mill in South Sumatra
does not inspire any confidence of the company
meeting its 2015 deadline for sustainable
sourcing.”
Following a recently issued published analysis
of the reality behind APP’s global greenwash
campaign from Sumatra NGO coalition Eyes
on the Forest, the company cited several
forms of certification and assessment to
back its claims of sustainability, stating
that: “In fact, APP is regularly assessed
and certified by many of the world’s leading
authorities on sustainable forest management
and environmental auditors - including Geneva-based
SGS, TUV, AFNOR, the official French auditors
for the European ‘ EcoLabel’, PHPL, Indonesian
sustainable forest management standard,
LEI, Indonesian voluntary sustainable forest
management standard, and PEFC Chain-of-Custody,
the world’s largest forest certification
program.”
WWF asked the nominated certification schemes
and assessors whether they supported the
APP claim and also asked for detail of what
specific APP products or operations were
covered by their certifications. The survey
covered the key social and environmental
measures of free prior and informed consent
by landowners and protection of high conservation
value forests for forest operations and
forest clearance for plantations.
None of the schemes
or assessors endorsed the APP statement,
with major certifier SGS noting that “None
of the TLTV (legality) evaluations conducted
by SGS and the statements issued by SGS
provide the company with the right to claim
that their operations are ‘sustainable forest
management’ ” and “The SGS certificates/statements
do not support the claim of ‘sustainability’.”
No certificate or assessment issued evaluated
the sustainability of the APP group as a
whole. The Indonesian voluntary certification
scheme LEI said it “did not have data of
all APP operations”.
Imported pulp gets certified,
Sumatra forests get pulped
Limitations also apply to PEFC Chain-of-Custody
certification, often mentioned in APP claims
of sustainability. “ The PEFC CoC certificates
they hold also do not provide any assurance
of their own sustainability since these
are simply chain of custody and nothing
more,” said SGS which conducts the PEFC
certifications. “The PEFC certified material
they use in their production, thus enabling
them to make PEFC certification claims,
is all imported from outside Indonesia as
by our understanding there are no PEFC certified
forests in Indonesia.”
Key but neglected dimensions of sustainability
were whether conversion to plantation involved
the clearing of High Conservation Value
(HCV) forest or whether those with traditional
forest rights or tenure had given their
“free, prior and informed consent” to the
conversions. The LEI standard, for example
confirmed that "The decision to establish
forest plantation in certain area, either
it was converting natural forest with HCV
forest or deep peat and how it was conducted
in relation to Free, Prior and Informed
Consent is beyond LEI’s standard coverage."
APP suppliers have a record of clearing
areas of HCV forest and of neglecting to
recognise or do rigorous HCV assessments.
There is also a persistent record of land
tenure issues around APP operations.
Sumatra has lost more than half its forests
The WWF survey found that none of the certifications
demonstrated the legality of the APP wood
supply as a whole. Additionally, SGS noted
that some plantations had been established
on deep peat (more than three metres deep)
but Indonesian law lacked clear definition
of the conditions under which this was prohibited.
As well as being legally contentious, clearing
and drainage of deep peats is a key factor
in elevating Indonesia to the leading ranks
of carbon emitters globally and opens coastal
areas to the risk of seawater incursions.
Sumatra has lost more than half of its native
forests in the last 25 years. The International
Union for the Conservation of Nature recently
upgraded the Red List of threatened species
status of the Sumatra elephant to “critically
endangered”, citing habitat loss as the
main reason. The island’s orang-utans and
tigers are also under extreme pressure,
with recent documented incursions by APP
suppliers into reserves for tiger conservation
designated by the company itself and featured
in its international greenwashing campaign.
“APP’s claims of sustainability are not
convincing to a host of major companies
that have ceased to buy paper products from
them,” said Taylor.
“APP should realise that performance, not
promises and propaganda will get the world
off its back. A key performance indicator
would be for APP pulp mills to immediately
halt all use of wood sourced by clearing
tropical forests.”
