Mattel drops paper company linked to Indonesia deforestation

[GLT]

Mattel drops paper company linked to Indonesia deforestation
October 5, 2011 | 7:28 am

It's official: Barbie has broken up with Asia Pulp and Paper.

Responding to a campaign by Greenpeace, toy giant Mattel, maker of the
famed Barbie doll line, announced Wednesday that it will stop buying
paper and packaging that the environmental group has linked to rain
forest destruction in Indonesia.

The El Segundo company said it will tell suppliers to avoid wood fiber
from companies “that are known to be involved in deforestation.” Among
those companies, Greenpeace said in a statement, is Asia Pulp and
Paper (APP) group.

“The rain forests of Indonesia should be for species like the Sumatran
tiger, not for throwaway toy packaging," Bustar Maitar, head of
Greenpeace’s campaign to save the forests in Indonesia, said in the
statement "That’s why it is such good news that Mattel has developed
a new paper buying policy."

The group urged Asia Pulp and Paper to follow in the path of its
sister company, Golden Agri-Resources, which “has already committed to
clean up its act and has won back lucrative contracts."

Greenpeace has pledged to push other companies, such as Disney and
Hasbro, to take similar action to protect rain forests.

Mattel's move comes after Greenpeace tested packaging from the
company's toys, packaged in Indonesia, and found the cardboard
contained significant amounts of timber from Indonesian rain forests.
The group used Mattel's advertising campaign that featured a "reunion"
between Barbie and Ken to draw attention to the packaging, sending an
activist dressed as Ken and another as Barbie, who drove a pink skip
loader to the company's corporate office in June. They hung a banner
from the building that read: “Barbie: It’s Over. I don’t date girls
that are into deforestation.”

Mattel’s new policy also includes safeguards against buying wood fiber
from tree plantations established in areas where natural forests once
stood, a practice that is driving deforestation, Greenpeace said.

The toy maker also said it intends to increase the amount of recycled
paper it uses, and to increase the use of wood products certified by
the Forest Stewardship Council.

"Mattel is committed to advancing the use of sustainably-sourced paper
and wood fiber in our packaging and products," a statement on the
company's website said. "Mattel will strive to implement these
fundamental principles to guide our efforts and maximize, to the
extent feasible, the use of post-consumer recycled content and
sustainable fiber."

The company also said it will "maximize post-consumer recycled content
where possible, while maintaining packaging and product integrity and
compliance with applicable laws and regulations."

It pledged to use only fiber whose source is known and traceable, and
which is harvested "in compliance with applicable laws and
regulations" locally, nationally and internationally, and in
accordance with "international guidelines and treaties to protect the
rights of indigenous peoples."

The company said it will establish specific goals and report on its
progress publicly.

Indonesia has one of the fastest rates of forest destruction in the
world. The Indonesian government estimates that nearly 2.5 million
acres of rain forest is being lost every year, according to
Greenpeace.

Indonesia’s rain forest, the largest in the world after those in the
Amazon and the Congo, is home to orangutans, tigers, elephants,
clouded leopards and scores of other endangered plants and animals. In
the last half-century, about 40% of the country’s forests have been
cleared, mainly for palm oil plantations and pulp and paper
operations.

Despite a partial moratorium announced last month, Indonesian
government plans suggest, by some accounts, that nearly half of the
remaining natural forest could be cut in the next two decades.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/10/mattel-barbie-deforestation-asian-paper-and-pulp.html