Paper tiger, hidden dragons 2: APRIL fools - The forest destruction, social conflict and financial crisis of Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd (APRIL), and the role of financial institutions and paper merchants

Latest report from Friends of the Earth's Coporates Campaign looking at linkages between financial institutions, pulp and paper manufaturers and paper merchants in forest destruction. The report focuses on the activities of Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Ltd (APRIL) - one of the worlds largest pulp and paper companies - and their subsidiary operations in Sumatra. The authors use this case study to build a picture of reckless capital investment and corporate expansion that is resulting in the rapid destruction of some of the worlds most biodiverse forests.The report concludes that, as the forests disappear, paper prices fall and debts spiral, all the parties involved - investors, APRIL, paper merchants and the indonesian people stand to lose heavily. It makes a number of recommendations to save the situation.APRILTo halt all logging activity in natural forest areas until an independent, public and To support protection of those areas identfied as being of high conservation value.To conduct an independent, public and transparent assessment of land claims in areas where APRIL is sourcing timber To stop logging in these areas until the land claims have been resolved.To reduce pulp processing capacity to sustainable levelsTo implement an independent, on-going monitoring system to demonstrate raw materials are sustainably sourced.To stop all forest clearance in Tesso Nilo & support its establishment as a fully protected areaFinancial Institutions To support all the above recommendations as part of APRIL’s debt restructuring planTo not support any further development of pulp and paper operations in Indonesia or Malaysia without independent, public sustainability plans.To adopt and fully implement a Forests Policy which ensures that no financial activities destroy High Conservation Value Forest and that the rights of local communities are respected.Improve due diligence to fully assess the financial risks and practices involved with the forestry sector.Paper MerchantsTo stop all purchases of APRIL PaperOne paper made in Indonesia until APRIL has implemented the above recommendations.