The few Sumatran tigers still alive would be roaring if they knew Asia Pulp & Paper Group, the company turing Indonesia's rainforests into toilet paper has agreed to immediately halt any further deforestation and develop a conservation policy according to
Greenpeace. The high profile international conservation organization has been campaigning against the company for more than ten years.
Greenpeace began asking commodity purchasers to stop buying unless Asia Pulp & Paper agreed to stop deforestation. Of course the devil is in the details of implementation and the company has made and broken promises before. APPG missed three self-imposed targets for phasing out logging in Sumatra. It defaulted on $13.9 billion in debt in 2001, and currently has plans to construct the world's largest paper mill costing $1.5 billion or more in South Sumatra. How it will abide by its
latest environmental policy commitments given revenue demands is not clear. For now, APPG has publicly stated it will impose a moratorium on clearance of natural forests and peatlands. In addition it has agreed to independent monitoring of its compliance. Greenpeace will suspend its market-oriented campaign that has cost the company millions of dollars in lost business since 2009. The implications of APPG's policy reversal are considerable in Indonesia. APPG is owned by Sinar Mas a powerful force in that nation's politics Sinar Mas also owns Golden Agri Resources, Indonesia's largest palm oil company. The move puts pressure on other environmental offenders such as Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd. to adopt similar sustainable policies.
