In a glaring case of greenwashing that threatens some of the globe’s biggest tropical rainforests, one of the world’s largest pulp and paper companies—Indonesia’s Royal Golden Eagle Group (RGE) with subsidiaries Sateri, Asia Pacific Rayon, APRIL and Asia Symbol—has not eliminated deforestation from across its supply chain, says a report by Greenpeace and four other nonprofit organisations.
- The practice continues unabated, says the report titled Pulping Borneo: Deforestation in the RGE Group’s supply chain and RGE’s hidden links to a new mega-scale pulp mill in North Kalimantan, Indonesia.
- RGE is also now linked to a new mega-scale pulp mill under construction in northeast Kalimantan, Indonesia, which is expected to threaten some of the world’s largest tropical rainforests.
- This report aims to raise awareness about the risks that RGE’s current and planned operations pose for rainforest destruction in Kalimantan and Papua.
- The findings of this report should caution RGE’s customers, financiers, certification bodies, as well as local communities, civil society, consumers of RGE products, and the broader public about its controversial wood suppliers and risky pulp mill expansion plans.
- The manner in which corporate structuring in offshore jurisdictions obscures RGE’s involvement in these controversial operations should raise further concerns. People around the world are using these companies’ products in their everyday lives, the viscose in clothes from global fashion brands, paper packaging in grocery stores, and tissue products in kitchens and bathrooms.
- The organisations which jointly published the report were Yayasan Auriga Nusantara, Environmental Paper Network, Greenpeace International, Woods & Wayside International, and Rainforest Action Network.