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RSS FeedPaper Giant Destroys Natural Forests, Hides Behind Philanthropy—Part 2 of 2
by Yongfeng Feng on April 10, 2007
Since 2005, Sinar Mas Group, the Indonesia-based owner of APP, has poured some 20 million yuan (US$2.6 million) into Hainan’s public welfare. On March 28, 2005, the day the group’s subsidiary Jin Hai Pulp and Paper Company began its operations, Zhiyuan Huang, the president of Sinar Mas, promised the provincial government 50 million yuan (US$6.5 million) over five years to create the “Hainan Sinar Mas Education and Environmental Protection Foundation.” Since then, the foundation has supported local reconstruction following Typhoon Dawei as well as provided funding to the provincial forestry and environmental protection bureaus—carrying out its mission to “protect the local environment, support local education, and promote a more harmonious society.”
In addition, at the end of 2005, Sinar Mas Group donated 1 million yuan (US$120,000) to Hainan University to build a student aid fund. Since its launch in Zhenjiang in September 2006, the “Huang Yicong Student Aid Fund,” named after the founder of Sinar Mas, has expanded its student sponsorship to all major cities with APP subsidiaries. By late March 2007, the group’s total donations in China had exceeded 270 million yuan (US$35 million), according to Jiesheng Huang, assistant to the president of APP China.
Sinar Mas Group has clearly realized that its strategy of philanthropic investment in environmental protection and education can play the same role as its widespread “poverty alleviation” propaganda in hiding the company’s ecological destruction in China.
On October 31, 2006, I published an article in People’s Daily Online questioning the two-faced nature of Sinar Mas, with its simultaneous support for philanthropy and ecological destruction. I argued that the company should exercise environmental caution in its Chinese production activities before spending large sums on public welfare—otherwise, the company is simply being hypocritical when it donates to China but keeps destroying the country’s ecology.
Later that day, APP called People’s Daily and told the paper (untruthfully) that it had confirmed with me that the article "was not in fact written by me.” The propaganda department of Yunnan Province also called People’s Daily to ask that they remove my article from their website, and sent a fax to my organization asking them to penalize me because the article represented “an attack on Yunnan.” Three Yunnan experts that I listed in my article were also subject to the government’s investigation.
APP has been adept at developing relationships with various Chinese political and business partners. In 2006, the company invited Hengyuan Li, vice president of the government environmental organization All-China Environmental Federation (ACEF), to visit its production bases. Later that year, ACEF openly complimented APP on its efforts to protect the environment, citing the company’s Suzhou subsidiary as a model of an integrated tree, pulp, and paper project and as a key solution to both the pulp raw-material shortage and the lag in infrastructure and pollution control technology in China’s papermaking industry.
However, in 2005, it was ACEF that had supported Zhejiang Hotel Association’s decision to boycott paper products from APP and had even offered to help that association with a defamation lawsuit brought by APP. To explain this 180-degree turn, Li says that ACEF was at first unclear about APP’s role in environmental destruction in China, and had received most of its information from environmental groups that opposed the company. But after doing its own investigation, the group found this judgment to be incomplete and subjective. “So this time, we gave the company an award for its environmentally friendly paper products, as a way to clean up its reputation,” Li notes.
Liu Bin, director of the forest program at Greenpeace China, concedes that APP may have met certain environmental and energy efficiency standards in its production. But considering the source of its pulp materials and the company’s lack of social responsibility, the “environmentally friendly’” award falls short of reality, he says. In addition, APP still has not resolved issues regarding the development and expansion of mono-crop eucalyptus plantations.
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The global paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has advertised its slogan, “ecological plantations, environmental pulp, green paper,” everywhere around Hainan Province. It has also won over officials in this southern island province. In March 2005, the government of Hainan observed of the company’s integrated tree, pulp, and paper project: “the project will not only expand Hainan’s plantation area, but also help solve local transportation problems, as the newly opened and repaired roads for transporting fertilizers, seedlings, and logs can also benefit local residents. Encouraging farmers to participate in the construction of fast-growing plantations will directly increase their income and experience with modern plantation technology and management, as well as enhance the quality of the local labor force and improve economic development. The project can both provide job opportunities to local farmers and attract excellent people from the outside.”
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| APP Eucalyptus plantations within Yingge Mountain Conservation Area. Photo: Zhong Yu |
In addition, at the end of 2005, Sinar Mas Group donated 1 million yuan (US$120,000) to Hainan University to build a student aid fund. Since its launch in Zhenjiang in September 2006, the “Huang Yicong Student Aid Fund,” named after the founder of Sinar Mas, has expanded its student sponsorship to all major cities with APP subsidiaries. By late March 2007, the group’s total donations in China had exceeded 270 million yuan (US$35 million), according to Jiesheng Huang, assistant to the president of APP China.
Sinar Mas Group has clearly realized that its strategy of philanthropic investment in environmental protection and education can play the same role as its widespread “poverty alleviation” propaganda in hiding the company’s ecological destruction in China.
On October 31, 2006, I published an article in People’s Daily Online questioning the two-faced nature of Sinar Mas, with its simultaneous support for philanthropy and ecological destruction. I argued that the company should exercise environmental caution in its Chinese production activities before spending large sums on public welfare—otherwise, the company is simply being hypocritical when it donates to China but keeps destroying the country’s ecology.
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| The road built for eucalyptus plantations. Photo: Zhong Yu |
APP has been adept at developing relationships with various Chinese political and business partners. In 2006, the company invited Hengyuan Li, vice president of the government environmental organization All-China Environmental Federation (ACEF), to visit its production bases. Later that year, ACEF openly complimented APP on its efforts to protect the environment, citing the company’s Suzhou subsidiary as a model of an integrated tree, pulp, and paper project and as a key solution to both the pulp raw-material shortage and the lag in infrastructure and pollution control technology in China’s papermaking industry.
However, in 2005, it was ACEF that had supported Zhejiang Hotel Association’s decision to boycott paper products from APP and had even offered to help that association with a defamation lawsuit brought by APP. To explain this 180-degree turn, Li says that ACEF was at first unclear about APP’s role in environmental destruction in China, and had received most of its information from environmental groups that opposed the company. But after doing its own investigation, the group found this judgment to be incomplete and subjective. “So this time, we gave the company an award for its environmentally friendly paper products, as a way to clean up its reputation,” Li notes.
Liu Bin, director of the forest program at Greenpeace China, concedes that APP may have met certain environmental and energy efficiency standards in its production. But considering the source of its pulp materials and the company’s lack of social responsibility, the “environmentally friendly’” award falls short of reality, he says. In addition, APP still has not resolved issues regarding the development and expansion of mono-crop eucalyptus plantations.
On January 16, Xiaoyi Liao, director of the Beijing Earth Village Environmental Education Center, published an open letter announcing her resignation from the board of ACEF. She stated that ACEF’s publication of a glowing report on APP’s integrated tree, pulp, and paper project in the absence of full board consultation, as well as its granting of an environmental award to APP, were unacceptable to her as a board member of the group.
Yongfeng Feng is an acclaimed editor and journalist at China Guangming Daily who reports and writes on science and technology issues. Outside contributions to China Watch reflect the views of the author and are not necessarily the views of the Worldwatch Institute.
