AFP, Jakarta :
Conservationists are urging the Indonesian government to listen to business and start taking deforestation seriously after a major paper giant joined the growing ranks of companies pledging to stop clearing forests.
Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd (APRIL), the second largest pulp and paper company in Indonesia, announced this week it had stopped harvesting natural forest in a move hailed by its former critic Greenpeace as a “major breakthrough”.
Indonesia has some of the world’s most extensive and biodiverse rainforests, but huge swathes have been chopped down by palm oil, mining and timber companies.
As a result, Southeast Asia’s top economy has become the world’s third-biggest carbon emitter.
APRIL and its major rival Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which together produce 80 percent of Indonesia’s pulp products, have been accused of destroying vast tranches of the forests that are home to endangered species such as Sumatran orangutans and tigers.
Conservationists are urging the Indonesian government to listen to business and start taking deforestation seriously after a major paper giant joined the growing ranks of companies pledging to stop clearing forests.
Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd (APRIL), the second largest pulp and paper company in Indonesia, announced this week it had stopped harvesting natural forest in a move hailed by its former critic Greenpeace as a “major breakthrough”.
Indonesia has some of the world’s most extensive and biodiverse rainforests, but huge swathes have been chopped down by palm oil, mining and timber companies.
As a result, Southeast Asia’s top economy has become the world’s third-biggest carbon emitter.
APRIL and its major rival Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which together produce 80 percent of Indonesia’s pulp products, have been accused of destroying vast tranches of the forests that are home to endangered species such as Sumatran orangutans and tigers.
