Thursday 31 March 2011

Bad Logging Practices for Nova Scotia?


The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

N.S. pulp mill sold to Paper Excellence; Greenpeace criticizes deal

By: The Canadian Press
Posted: 03/30/2011 3:49 PM
PICTOU, N.S. - A Nova Scotia pulp mill has been sold to Paper Excellence in a deal greeted by union members but criticized by environmentalists.
The Vancouver office of the company announced the agreement to buy Northern Pulp and Northern Timber of Abercrombie, N.S., in a news release posted today.
No figures were disclosed in the release.
The news release says the deal is "good news" for the 230 employees of the mill, and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union issued a news release saying it provides job stability.
However, Greenpeace also issued a news release saying it is unhappy about the acquisition due to the firm's forestry practices.
Paper Excellence operates three mills in Canada: Meadow Lake in Saskatchewan and Howe Sound and Mackenzie in British Columbia, and is in the process of acquiring the long closed Prince Albert mill in Saskatchewan.
Greenpeace Canada
March 30, 2011-03-30
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Greenpeace is concerned about the negative impact on the forests of Nova Scotia and the security of jobs that will result from the sale of Northern Pulp’s Pictou mill to a subsidiary of Asia Pulp Paper (APP).
APP’s subsidiary Paper Excellence has been on a buying spree, scooping up prime Canadian pulp assets in British Columbia andSaskatchewan and shipping jobs offshore. The majority of the pulp produced by the company’s other mills is shipped to China for processing into paper products.
Statement by Greenpeace forest coordinator Richard Brooks:
“It is a great concern that Canadian mills are being bought up by Asia Pacific Paper, one of the most destructive logging and pulp and paper companies operating anywhere on the planet.  APP is the primary contributor to making Indonesia the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. We urge the Nova Scotia and federal governments to investigate APP which has been involved in illegal logging and deforestation in Indonesia for decades and continues to be involved in conflicts with local communities there. APP is also a debt-ridden company. Do we want that kind of company as a major player in Canada’s forest products sector?”

Background:
The destruction of rainforest and carbon-rich peatlands is the key reason for why Indonesia accounts for around a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation. The palm oil and pulp and paper industry are the two major drivers of these escalating emissions. The endangered orang-utan and Sumatran tiger are just two of the species under threat of extinction due to habitat loss caused by Asia Pulp and Paper.
Asia Pulp and Paper, the ‘family treasure’ of the Sinar Mas Group and the notorious Widjaja family, defaulted on more than $14 billion of debt during the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s. It was saved by suspicious government financed ‘restructuring’.  At the end of 2009, APP’s Indonesian mills still owed $4.2 billion of restructured debt.
Virtually all of the pulp output from APP’s newly purchased Canadian mills has been redirected away from North American paper manufacturers and associated jobs to the company’s own mills in China.
Major forest products companies Office Depot, Staples, Xerox, Ricoh, and Target have all cancelled contracts with APP over risks to their brands of using APP products and over APP’s links to deforestation. APP is subject to a global campaign by Greenpeace and other 
environmental organizations.

Sierra Club BC

 

Environmental Organizations to CANFOR: Do Not Sell Howe Sound Pulp and Paper to Global Logging Villain SINAR MAS

Vancouver Aug 11, 2010
ForestEthics, Greenpeace, Sierra Club B.C. and Canopy are alarmed by Canfor Forest Products’ decision to sell its Howe Sound Pulp and Paper operation to Paper Excellence BV, the Netherlands-based unit of Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group. In a letter to Canfor, the environmental organizations are urging the company to not sell Howe Sound Pulp and Paper to Paper Excellence, but instead explore alternative ownership scenarios.
Sinar Mas, in particular its pulp and paper arm Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), is known globally for massive environmental destruction for palm oil and pulp and paper, including logging intact rainforests and peatland, wiping out Orangutan habitat, human rights violations and financial scandals in Indonesia. Internationally, environmental and human rights organizations have condemned Sinar Mas operations. In July 2010 a group of 40 non-governmental organizations released an open letter to the marketplace alerting any company doing business with APP that this would pose a serious risk to their respective brands. Greenpeace International has a major marketplace boycott campaign against Sinar Mas/APP.
“Sinar Mas represents everything we are working against in B.C. and other parts of the world: rainforest destruction, use of violence against Aboriginal people and unbridled corporate greed,” said Jens Wieting, forest campaigner with Sierra Club BC.
“We have a global responsibility and should not be inviting companies who apply ‘worst practices’ in other parts of the world intoCanada,” said Will Craven, Media Officer at ForestEthics.
“Sinar Mas or any of its paper tiger companies setting up shop in BC is a problem. They need to clean up their act abroad by stopping the destruction of natural Indonesian rainforests for pulp and paper and palm oil. We cannot risk Sinar Mas bringing what they consider business-as-usual practices to British Columbia,” said Stephanie Goodwin, Greenpeace B.C. Director.
Howe Sound Pulp and Paper’s joint owners, Canada's Canfor Forest Products and Oji Paper Co Ltd. of Japan, agreed in July to sell the operation to Paper Excellence / Sinar Mas for an undisclosed price. Finalising the deal could take until October. Howe Sound Pulp and Paper is the Dutch company’s second purchase in BC this year, in what an industry publication has described as a “buying spree.”


Note:
Based in the Netherlands, Paper Excellence BV also owns Meadow Lake Mechanical Pulp (BCTMP) in Saskatchewan and two mills in B.C., Mackenzie Pulp Mill (kraft pulp) and Howe Sound Pulp & Paper (kraft, TMP and newsprint). Paper Excellence is the Netherlands-based arm of Sinar Mas' Asia Pulp & Paper (APP)



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