Greenpeace says it investigated two rain forest areas on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, concluding that APP is responsible for destroying the rain forests and carbon-rich peatlands.
According to the NGO, the Bukit Tigapuluh forest is one of the last refuges for Sumatran tigers and orangutans.
APP, owned by Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas Group, is one of the world's largest paper companies.
“These are just two of the many important rainforests being decimated by Sinar Mas,” Bustar Maitar, forest campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said in press release on Tuesday.
Carrefour Indonesia's communication manager Hendri Satrio confirmed in a letter to the Jarkarta Post that it will cease sourcing of APP supplies for its own brands starting mid year.
Greenpeace's report 'How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet,' alleges that APP secretly planned to increase the capacity of its operations from 2.6 million tons per year to 17 million tons per year.
“Its ‘sustainability commitments’ are not worth the paper they are written on and yet some major international brands are also driving the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests by purchasing their products," said Bustar.
APP has denied all accusations and declined to comment. According to the Post, APP said that Greenpeace has a sinister agenda behind their campaign and told the group do proper research before making further remarks.
“They are part of the global competition. We suspect that Sinar Mas is merely an intermediate target,” Sinar Mas Managing Director Gandhi Sulistiyanto told The Jakarta Post by telephone.
This is not the first time that Sinar Mas has become a target of the environmental group. Earlier this year, Greenpeace accused PT. SMART, one of Sinar Mas subsidiaries, of converting prohibited forest areas into palm oil plantations. Due to the Greenpeace findings, Unilever stopped buying products from Sinar Mas in December 2009.
To avert public relations fallout, U.S.-based food producer Nestle joined the move in April by terminating its palm oil procurement from Sinar Mas. It was reported that Tesco supermarkets in the U.K. would also follow the trend by the end of the year.
Carrefour’s decision is the latest series of woes for Sinar Mas since Greenpeace issued its report in June. In early July, Kraft also terminated its contract with APP.
Greenpeace has also called on other world companies that source from APP, like Walmart, KFC, Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, HP, Staples, and Australia’s PaperlinX, to find other suppliers.
Rampant deforestation, poor regulation, and high level corruption in the government have long been considered key factor as to why Indonesia became the third largest greenhouse gas emitter after China and United States.
Sinar Mas Group, founded by Indonesian entrepreneur Wijaya families, currently owns a large number of incorporated companies including APP and PT.SMART, with a total of 150,000 employees spread over Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia.
