Greenpeace's response to APP headquarters in China｜Greenpeace

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www.greenpeace.org.cn 香港．廣州．北京

25 November 2004

Greenpeace’s Response to APP headquarters in China On 16 November, Greenpeace released “Investigative report on APP’s Forest Destruction in Yunnan.” Recently, APP headquarters in China finally made a public response to that. On 24 November, Sinar Mas APP publicized a “Response to Greenpeace’s Investigative Report on APP’s Forest Destruction in Yunnan” and denied the rebuke.

Greenpeace welcomes APP’s response, and hopes that APP will increase its transparency to the media, non-government organizations and consumers so that the public can understand the truth.

However, the APP’s statement did not provide any evidence, nor made any data related to its Yunnan project available to the public.

Here is the further response of Greenpeace to APP headquarters in China: (1)

Did APP’s Yunnan Project damage the forest?

APP said that their project in Yunnan is just to plant trees, and does not involve any purchase or logging.

Actually, according to the “Report on the forest-pulp-paper integration project of APP in Simao” written by Yunnan Forest Office on 20 July 2004, “With the development of cooperation, APP has proposed to enlarge the material base from 6,000,000 mu to 12,000,000 mu, and the project’s scale is continuously extended. From the point of available forest lands in Simao, it has 2,800,000 mu land without trees. Therefore, if they want to build a paper-pulp forest of 12,000,000 mu, they have to cut down existing trees and rebuild the forests with more rapid growth and higher yield. Because of the current quota for Marketable timber available, it is now far from meeting the capability of processing factories. Such situation will undoubtedly lead to the breakthrough of Marketable timber quota, even breaks the total amount for annual felling. ” If APP’s project does not involve cutting down the existing forests, how could it fulfill the task of the planned plantation area?  

In our field investigation in Baomaidi village located in Simao city, Yunnan province, we found large number of left over stakes and separated trunks that were yet to be removed. Most of their chest diameters are over 5 centimeters.

The farmers in Xiangshuihe village, Yakou town of Lancang county told us, “At the beginning of this year, the forest was completely. In March and April, they planted eucalyptus. We can earn 1 cent for planting one tree, sometimes even this money cannot be fully paid, instead only 0.8 cent most of the time.”

（ 2 ） Does APP project in Yunnan have the problem of “drain on national assets and violation of farmers’ legal property rights”?

It has been clearly stated in the report of the State Forestry Administration and Yunnan Forestry Administration that: 



(3)

“Notice from the State Forestry Administration about addressing the issues of some governmental departments in forest resource management”(Forestry 106[2004]) “according to the memorandum signed by APP and Yunnan government, APP plans to contract 10,650,000 mu for pulp material base for 50 years. APP pays 40 yuan per mu annually (0.8 yuan per mu annually), and 70 yuan per cubic meter for timber transfer……” This kind of activities manipulated by government alone but without capital assessment is against the Market economy values, and leads to the drain on national assets and violation of farmers’ legal property rights.”

“Report on the forest-pulp-paper integration project of APP in Simao”(submitted by Yunnan Forestry Administration to Yunnan government on 20 July 2004), “(3) the legal rights of forest owners have been infringed upon; (4)the transfer of forest using rights and ownership is not standardized; Because of the intervening of the governmental behavior in forest field and timber transaction and that forest resources have not been assessed by the institution that is qualified for investigation, planning and design, the interest of forest owners cannot be protected.”

How big is the area of APP’s Yunnan project?

APP has pointed out that the area of Yunnan project “is not as large as what the media described.

Most figures are just the intentioned expectation sincerely displayed when considering further cooperation with the local government.”

Statistical Area

Total

Total Area

Area of Afforested Land

Non-forest Land

Amount

Forest Land

Thin Bush fores land t land

Immatureforest Land

Land usable for Afforestation

2051.8

1108.1

40

69

518.3

316.4

589.2

% 77.7 42 1.5 12 2.6 19.6 22.3 Simao 10 831.6 720.7 2.6 44.5 23.8 40 259.4 project Wenshan 5 320.2 55.4 11.4 60.9 6.2 186.3 229.8 project Lincang 10 900 332 26 211 39 292 100 project Note： * In June, 2003, when APP signed a contract with the administrative office of Simao area the forest base area was increased to12,000,000 mu. Thus, the total area of APP’s eucalypt integration project in Yunnan amounted to 27,500,000 mu.

Is the report of Yunnan Forestry Administration submitted to Yunnan provincial government exaggerated? If APP holds any objection, the Greenpeace welcomes APP to publish the relative documents ranging from 2002 till now in order to prove that this is just an exaggeration.

(4)

Can Eucalyptus lead to negative side effects to Yunnan’s ecological environment?

APP believes the influence of eucalyptus over ecology “in fact does not exist.”

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A number of investigations and evidences listed in the Greenpeace reports have demonstrated that Eucalyptus plantation in large scale---especially for the activities based on damaging the original natural forests—can probably lead to negative influence to the environment. As Yunnan is a place with the richest biological diversity and that the APP’s project area is so large, some Yunnan forest experts have opposed to building large area eucalyptuses plantations. Therefore, Greenpeace believes that the negative side effect the project generates should not be ignored.

Greenpeace hopes that APP will further release related information of the project to the public so that the public can know more about the truth. We urge APP once again that, as one of the biggest pulp groups in the world, APP should take corporate social responsibilities, and should not destroy China’s forest resources.

Greenpeace China

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