Asian Pulp Giants Pressed to Paper over Rivalry to Save Rainforest

摘要

Asia's pulp and paper giants - which supply materials for stationery, tissues and toilet roll - are being urged by environmentalists to follow the palm oil industry in stepping up collaboration to tackle forest loss and fires in Indonesia, as reported by Thomson Reuters Foundation. Singapore's APRIL Group and its main rival Indonesia's Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP), both with operations largely on Sumatra island, are working with local communities and using technologies like satellite imagery to protect forests on their concessions and prevent fires. Many parts of Indonesia, home to the world's third-largest tropical forests, are blighted by deforestation and fires, which green groups blame on land clearance by the paper and pulp, palm oil and timber industries, as well as farmers. Air pollution caused by annual forest fires this year was the worst since 2015, according to the World Resources Institute, a U.S.-based environmental think-tank.