JAKARTA — One of the world’s biggest pulp and paper companies has acknowledged to Mongabay a potential breach of its no-deforestation commitment in its supply chain, raising questions about the company’s attempt to regain sustainability certification under the Forest Stewardship Council. A new report by U.S.-based campaign group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) alleges that Singapore-based pulp and paper giant Royal Golden Eagle’s (RGE) supply chain is linked to deforestation in Indonesia, despite the group having adopted a no-deforestation policy in 2015. RGE, owned by Indonesia’s billionaire Tanoto family, is one of the world’s largest producers of wood pulp and the various products made from it, including paper, tissue, packaging, and viscose rayon. According to the report, RGE’s pulp and paper unit in China, Asia Symbol, sourced wood from two pulpwood plantations in Indonesian Borneo where 5,565 hectares (13,751 acres) of natural forest were cleared between 2020 and 2024. The analysis draws on satellite data, field investigations, and customs and wood supply records compiled by supply chain transparency platform Trase in its latest update on Indonesia’s pulp sector. The forest clearance occurred in the watershed of the Mahakam River, which contains some of the largest remaining tracts of intact rainforest in Indonesia and supports populations of critically endangered and iconic species, including the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), Mahakam population of the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), and the Bornean population of the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Previously thought to be extinct in the wild on Borneo, Sumatran rhinos were detected in the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

From Conservation news via this RSS feed