The news comes as the paper giant recently announced that it would stop using timber from Indonesia’s natural forests and only use trees from plantations.
APP is a major supplier of paper, pulp and packaging in Asia but it has been regularly criticised over the years for its clearing of forests. Groups such as Greenpeace have accused the firm of fuelling climate change and pushing rare Sumatran tigers, orangutans and elephants toward extinction by clearing the forests where they live.
Several of its former customers, including toy firm Mattel, stopped using APP products, last year, following Greenpeace protests over the origin of its packaging. APP is appealing to its customers to come back.
‘Wait and see’
Speaking exclusively to PN in her office in Indonesia about APP’s recent pledge to halt the clearing of natural forests, APP managing director for sustainability Aida Greenbury said: “The negative perceptions have neutralised quite a lot. One thing that made people realise that we were serious was when we stopped the natural clearance of the rainforest immediately.
“This convinced people that we are serious this time around.”
She said that Greenpeace were one of the stakeholders that helped APP on the journey to announce the policy. She said that what happened in the past with Greenpeace was needed and “we needed to listen to our colleagues”.
Greenbury added: “In terms of customers, I expect them to have a ‘wait and see’ position to make sure we make progress in the next two to three months. A lot of them have already come back to talk to us. But some of them have adopted a ‘wait and see’ position, which is fine.
“For the big companies it was a big decision to source from us – so it is going to be a big decision to come back to us as well. We need to give them time and space. We also need to be given time and space to implement our policy as well.”
Greenbury explained: “The fact that Greenpeace changed their position once we agreed to address their concerns was amazing.”
Greenpeace forest campaigner Andy Tait told PN: “APP has made strong commitments to end deforestation across their supply chain, but the focus now must be on turning words into action where it matters: in the forests of Indonesia.
“It would be premature for former customers to resume business with APP until there is strong, consistent evidence that the company has implemented its new policy – and this will inevitably take time.”
Speaking about the future, Greenbury said that packaging was an area of focus for APP and demand for its products was growing in Asia.
Greenbury also said that she was the instigator behind APP’s Sustainability Roadmap Vision 2020. The roadmap outlines APP’s action plan to operationalise, what it calls its, sustainability commitments and improve its environmental performance. The roadmap requires APP’s pulpwood suppliers to operate by the standards of High Conservation Value Forest and to provide robust protection for biodiversity.
European Union Timber Regulation
Elsewhere, Indonesia has a new timber certification system called the SVLK which consists of standards and guidelines to ensure wood and wood based products produced by Indonesian concession holders and manufacturers are sourced from legal origins. It is due to be implemented later this year.
It is hoped that the SVLK will reassure EU customers, who will have to comply to the new European Union Timber Regulations (EUTR) in March, that SVLK approved timber will be legal timber.
The EUTR is a European law which comes into force next month and it is aims to prohibit the placing of illegally harvested timber on the EU market.
Greenbury said APP wanted to provide its customers with more responsible products. She added: “APP has been together with all parties to develop SVLK since day one. We were part of the discussions from the very beginning.
“I want to reassure our customers that APP is behind the EUTR 150%. There is nothing we would or could do to jeopardize that. When they receive our products they have nothing to worry about because we have had years or preparation to make sure our products are fully compliant.”
