Pulp, Paper and the Environment

Paper and Nature

Paper has played an important role in civilisation, and the history of paper-making is one in which the industry has continuously evolved to meet challenges and achieve entrepreneurial development and technological change.

The twenty-first century is bringing new challenges to the paper industry as producers and consumers become more aware of the environmental and social impacts of industrial activity and become committed to a sustainable future.

Although paper products yield many benefits, society’s growing demand for paper leaves an unacceptably large ecological footprint on the planet.

The paper industry has a special responsibility, due to its scale, location and resource use, to transform its production and consumption patterns towards processes that are ecologically and socially responsible.

Production, consumption and waste of pulp and paper results in many negative social and environmental impacts across the planet.

In some regions, the expanding production and harvesting of pulp wood threatens the last remaining natural forests, their precious fauna and flora, and the people that depend on them. The processing of pulp and paper also consumes vast amounts of energy and releases a wide range of polluting compounds into the environment.

Does your office paper contain wood fibre from the Baltic States and Russia where unlawful and destructive harvesting practices cause big problems?
In Europe, production of pulp, the key ingredient for tissues, relies to a significant extent on timber from Russia and the Baltic states. Sweden and Finland, major tissue and paper producing countries, for instance, are major buyers of pulp from these countries.

In Russia and the Baltic states, unlawful harvesting and other criminal forest activities are causing huge losses to biodiversity, as well as to economy and society. The scale of illegal logging is dramatic, e.g. almost a third of timber logged in the north-west of Russia and 50 per cent in Estonia are illegal.

Russia loses approximately one billion US dollars per year to illegal logging and trade, which in turn restricts money available for good harvesting practices, local communities and development. Bad practices put wildlife in Russia's Boreal forests - such as the Capercaillie, White-backed woodpecker, Siberian tiger and Far Eastern leopard - at high risk.

The problem of illegal logging in the new EU member states is still largely unrecognised, and yet uncontrolled and illegal harvesting damages both nature and local communities.

Does your copy paper come from untouched forests which has been cut and burnt to make room for fast growing Eucalyptus plantations, destroying key habitats for orang-utans and displacing native peoples?
In Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and South Africa, fastwood plantations are a major source of wood for the pulp and paper industry. Problems related to plantation management exist in these countries that threaten key habitats and displace native peoples.

In Indonesia, for example, many of the forest fires in 1998/99 were deliberately lit to destroy native forests and make way for plantations to generate pulp. Fast growing Eucalyptus plantations continue to replace some of the most diverse ecosystems and natural forests.

The dramatic decline of orang-utan populations in South-East Asia is in part due to the destruction of their habitat through forest conversion to plantations and through illegal logging (Nearly 80% per cent of trees in Indonesia are cut illegally.)

Some companies have established plantations on land which has been taken by force from indigenous communities, or purchased at prices far below their value.

Plantations can be a good and important source of wood, but they need to be well managed and must not be established at the expense of local and indigenous communities, and by converting irreplaceable rainforests into fast growing tree crops.

Does your packaging paper come from an unsustainable, clear cut forest?
For pulp production, unsustainable cuttings of high conservation value forests, such as those in Canada, Sweden, Finland and Russia are a major concern in boreal regions. In addition to clearcuts, another major concern in boreal regions is the protection of high conservation value forests. Valuable forests are destroyed as a consequence of irresponsible practices, resulting in a shortage of habitat of the Grizzly bear, puma and Grey wolf in Canada, and habitats of hundreds of forest-dwelling species in Finland, Sweden and Russia.

In Sweden, 2000 forest-dwelling species have been listed as threatened. In Finland, 700 forest species are classified as endangered as a result of forestry practices that did not show proper care for life in the forest.

But harvesting can be done responsibly and need not threaten life in the forest. The WWF Paper Scorecard provides an easy to use guidance on the most important environmental issues paper producers should focus on and paper buyers should look for.