Around the world, the deforestation of natural forests progresses at an alarming rate. Member organisations of the European Environmental Paper Network are working together to stop paper products being sold in Europe that have come from forest destruction in Indonesia.

The Indonesian forests are the homes of communities of indigenous and other peoples whose livelihoods depend on forest resources. They are rich in biodiversity, including rare species such as Sumatran tigers, orang-utans, elephants and rhinos. Many of the remaining rainforests grow on deep peat soils, which release massive amounts of carbon when laid bare by logging and used for intensive tree production. The destruction of Indonesia’s forests and conversion to pulp plantations is therefore a huge social, environmental and climate disaster and working together to stop it is the EPN’s top priority.

The EPN believes that paper linked to massive deforestation represents exactly the opposite of the values and the solutions identified in the Common Vision for Transforming the European Paper Industry. For this reason, the EPN decided to engage in a global campaign to stop the expansion of such products into our markets, until the paper industry publicly commits to immediately stop natural forest conversion, and to adequately compensate local communities impacted by their practices.

Launching the campaign, 40 European NGOs from Italy, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Portugal, Malta, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland co-signed a

In 2012 we wrote joint letters to banks and European Export Credit Agencies, calling on them not to invest in new pulp mills that will inevitably cause more Indonesian deforestation. We also hosted a tour by a delegation of Indonesian activists to Europe (Indonesians Tour report)

As a result of our campaign, many companies have stopped buying paper coming from deforestation in Indonesia, with the cancellation of more than 100 business contracts. Companies that have announced discontinued or avoided sourcing from APP since 2000 include Adidas, Disney, Fuji, Gucci, Hasbro, Kraft, Lego, Levis, Marks & Spencer, Mattel, Nestlé, Office Depot, Scholastic, Tesco, Tiffany & Co., United Stationers, Unilever, Volkswagen, Wal-Mart, Woolworths, and Xerox.

In early 2013, the major paper producer in the area, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), announced a new forest policy.
EPN led joint work among NGOs to produce a number of milestones that this company needs to meet before being acceptable to customers again. As a result of these milestones, APP filled most of the gaps in its policy with new commitments: in April 2014, APP expanded its commitment to include the protection or restoration of a million hectares of Indonesian rainforest. In February 2015 APP announced a new implementation plan to address issues raised by an independent evaluation. Actions were announced in August 2015 by APP on the development of peatland management standards, high-tech LIDAR mapping of peatland , and removal and restoration projects on 7,000 hectares of plantations.

In June 2015, also Asia Pacific Resources Limited (APRIL) the other paper giant in Indoensia commited to stop immediately deforestation, to protect peatlands and to address social conflcits.

These commitments are important steps in the right direction, however they are still far to be fully and properly implemented on the ground, as shown by the massive fires and subsequent smoke and haze crisis that affected the entire South East Asian region.

We will publish updates and further information on this campaign here on a regular basis. So stay tuned!

If you or your organisation want to get active in this campaign, or to find out more, please drop us a line: mailto: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.