This morning, Asia Pulp and Paper – the world’s third largest paper and packaging company – announced that it was turning over a new leaf. It’s promised to stop chopping down Indonesia’s rainforests, home to the last tigers and endangered orangutans.
This breakthrough wouldn’t have happened without your help. Thanks to you, we persuaded over 100 of APP’s biggest customers to take their business elsewhere. Here are some of the highlights from the last two years.
2010
Our researchers are on the ground in Indonesia, gathering evidence that Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) are cutting down Indonesia’s rainforests. We publish ‘Pulping the Planet’, which reveals that major companies, including KFC, Pizza Hut and Tesco, are buying from APP and shows that APP is destroying tiger habitats in Sumatra.
2011
Summer
We discover that Mattel, Hasbro, Lego and Disney are selling toys wrapped in packaging made from rainforest trees.
Greenpeace enlists the support of Barbie’s boyfriend Ken as our campaign goes live. The heart-broken doll dumps his sweetheart after hearing that she is involved in deforestation. We drop a very public break-up message on Mattel’s headquarters in the US and in Picadilly Circus in London.
Over half a million of you join the campaign, asking Mattel to stop supporting deforestation and joining the hunt for our special Chainsaw Barbies.
Lego becomes the first toy company to cancel its contracts with APP.
Success: Mattel, Disney and Hasbro stop buying from Asia Pulp and Paper.
2012
Spring
A year-long Greenpeace investigation reveals that ramin trees – a protected species under international law, have turned up in APP’s Indah Kiat paper mill.
The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, the Norway Pension Fund, sells its stake in APP’s Indah Kiat paper mill. Soon after, two of the three largest foreign investors in mill, Skagen Funds and Mackenzie Financial, Indah Kiat’s 3rd largest foreign investor sells their stakes.
Xerox, National Geographic, Danone and Mondi announce that they will not buy from Asia Pulp and Paper.
Summer
We turn our attention to the fast food industry and reveals that KFC packaging, bought from APP, contains rainforest fiber. Launch of global campaign to get KFC and its parent company, Yum! to stop buying from APP and make its supply chain deforestation free.
KFC Indonesia stops buying from Asia Pulp and Paper.
Fall
KFC UK and Ireland agrees to stop buying its packaging from APP, after giant buckets and orangutans visit its flagship stores.
2013
Winter
APP, one of the world’s largest producers of paper and packaging, publishes a new ‘Forest Conservation Policy’ which, if implemented, could spell the end of its long and controversial history of rainforest destruction. Indonesia’s rainforests are a vital habitat for endangered species including the Sumatran tiger and home to thousands of forest communities.
