Asia Pulp and Paper Indonesia

About

Asia Pulp & Paper is one of the biggest pulp & paper producers in Asia, with operations in Indonesia and southern China. It's total pulp production capacity in both countries now amounts to 3.3 million tons per year, while its paper and packaging materials capacity amounts to over 7 million tons annually. The company aims to increase its global paper and board production capacity to reach 10 million tons per year by 2010. Most of this new capacity will be built in China.

Brief History

Starting from August 2002, APP cooperates with Yunnan provincial government to buy the Yunjing Lizhi Group pulp mill in Yunnan and enlarge the annual capacity of pulp production to 300,000 tonnes. Once this plan is implemented, the new mill will increase greatly the pressure on the natural forest around it. However, the State Forestry Administration of the Chinese Government ordered the APP to cease this deal of purchasing of state-owned forests, in February 2009.

In November 2007, the Forest Steward Council (FSC) issued a statement that dissociated it from APP. It ordered APP and companies in which it is a major shareholder not to use its name until APP proves it has stopped destroying or converting forests in the course of its operations.

In August 2008, Gold East Paper, an affiliate of APP in China, requested for an environmental review conducted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) - a prerequisite to get listed in China's stock market. Subsequently, the MEP initiated a 10-day consultation window to gather the public's opinions about the company.  Six environmental NGOs, including Greenpeace China, send a joint letter to the MEP urging it to consider Gold East Paper's IPO application carefully, due to its problematic environmental track record, which has included breaches of pollution laws and illegal
forest destruction.

Following a response from MEP to our first letter which said the ministry would carefully consider our suggestions, further evidence was found that Hainan Jinhai Pulp & Paper Co, a subsidiary of Gold East Paper has long been discharging polluting gases and wastewater exceeding allowable limits.

In March 2009, the MEP reopened the public consultation window for Gold East IPO.