taiga-news
newsletter
on boreal
forests
Issue 37
Winter
2001
Clearcut for Whom?
In Ontario, a new forestry rule has just been approved that encourages enormous clearcuts. Some
critics have assumed the new rule is the result of a conspiracy with the forestry industry. But it is more
subtle than that. Chris Henschel, of the Wildlands League, explains.
T
he Ontario government recently tried to use the
modest tree retention requirements of its new
forestry rule as the basis for claiming an end to
clearcutting as we know it. The reality is that the
biggest change brought about by the new rule is
the legal entrenchment of clearcuts with no upper
limit on size. The new rule (at www.mnr.gov.on.ca/
mnr/forests/forestdoc/ebr/guide/disturbance.html)
is a misguided attempt to ‘emulate’ fire through
forestry operations. Emulating natural disturbance
is a legal requirement under the province’s forestry
legislation. However, research shows clearly what
we already know intuitively – clearcuts are not
ecologically comparable to burns (see TN36).
Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR)
has seized upon an interpretation of fire emulation
that, in a twist of logic, makes enormous clearcuts
into a laudable ecological objective. Why? The
apparent lack of common sense and ecological
rigour of the approach leads many to suspect a
smokescreen with greedy forestry companies must
be behind it. But it’s not quite that simple.
At public meetings MNR biologists have
pleaded with opponents of the guideline to support
the MNR’s approach, ‘for the sake of the caribou’.
In Canada, woodland caribou is a wild species that
requires old coniferous forest far from roads to
survive. As forestry spreads across Ontario’s north,
the range of the species steadily retracts.
Some forest industry staff are genuinely troubled
by the market implications of being forced to comply
with this contentious guideline. Tembec, one of
Canada’s biggest forestry companies, signed on to
a joint statement with Wildlands League opposing
the big-clearcut approach, and supporting an
alternative that maintains the forest’s critical
characteristics. The story is more complicated than
a corporate love of big clearcuts.
There seem to be three drivers behind MNR’s
approach to this guideline. Big clearcuts to save
wildlife is what you get when you mix genuine
ecological objectives, binding legal requirements and
a government culture of sustaining timber supply.
Struck by the unnatural image of a landscape
carved into 200-ha blocks, and by the extirpation of
area-sensitive caribou from the industrial forest, staff
biologists want to curb these trends. The obvious
recourse would be a guideline that mandates the
retention of a judicious amount of old, intact forest.
But this solution is immediately at odds with MNR’s
prime directive, maintaining and increasing the timber
supply to mills. That many forest areas are already
being logged at or above their long-term sustained
fibre supply makes MNR even less likely to consider
an approach that might ‘take’ any of that wood away.
This conflict leaves MNR in a dilemma that has to
be solved to the satisfaction of two legal
requirements – to develop a clearcutting guideline,
and to emulate natural disturbances. Voila! A
guideline for big clearcuts that emulate the size of
natural fires. MNR is satisfied that the legal
requirements are met, fibre supplies are intact, and
staff biologists hold on to the hope that large
contiguous cuts may one day make nice contiguous
homes for caribou when the forest grows back.
There is of course a better way. Our alternative
approach to forestry offers a solution to maintaining
the forest’s integrity as well as a sustainable industry.
It focuses on retaining the critical characteristics of
the boreal forest that are threatened by logging. It is
described in Making Forestry Better, available at
www.wildlandsleague.org/proactive2.pdf
Contact:
[email protected]
Inside: The boreal pulp and paper industry – profiles and trends
news
Global
Contents
pulp&paper
Convention Credibility
4–9
transnationalisation 4
jaakko pöyry
corporate profiles
5
6–7
finance
8
nordic footprint
9
certification
10
illegal logging
11
Editorial
T
his issue of Taiga News explores
the pulp and paper industry of the
boreal region. The pulp industry is a
major player in the boreal forests, yet it
undergoes much less scrutiny than
other sectors such as the timber trade.
In this issue we have spotlighted a
number of important trends and forces
in the pulp industry, however we are
sure that we are only scratching the
surface of a critical issue for the boreal
forests, and the research presented here
raises as many questions as it answers.
One thing is clear from the data
presented on pages 6–7. Many of the
companies in the pulp industry are
huge, particularly the transnationals
operating on both sides of the Atlantic,
and, as Ola Larsson points out on page
4, they are generally getting bigger, and
more globalised. Chris Lang on page 9
demonstrates the complexity of the
overseas operations of many of these
companies, and Elisa Peter on page 5
explores how consultancy companies
oil their wheels.
It is notable that the Russian players
are, for the time being, much smaller than
their European and North American
counterparts. But given the attention
being paid by international financial
institutions to the Russian sector (see
page 8), the Russian government’s
liberal economic policies, and the huge
scale of Russia’s fibre resources, we can
probably expect rapid growth in the
Russian pulp and paper industry. What
impact this will have on the Taiga should
be a major concern for us all.
Continued on page 6
2
TAIGA NEWS
ISSUE 37
Winter 2001
The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD)
appears to be ready to address the real
causes of forest loss in a credible and
participatory manner. The Subsidiary Body
on Scientific, Technical and Technological
Advice (SBSTTA) of the CBD, which met
from 12 to 16 November in Montreal, took
on board the recommendations of the
global process on the underlying causes
of forest degradation and deforestation.
There seemed to be a general consensus
amongst the SBSTTA delegates that it was
time for action and the final outcome was a
large number of action-orientated
recommendations on a broad range of
issues. The meeting was described by
non-governmental (NGO) participants as
‘historic’ and bodes well for the 6th
Conference of the Parties (COP) of the CBD
in April 2002.
Contact:
Simone Lovera, Global Forest Coalition
[email protected]
Increased NGO Participation
NGOs have been invited to participate in
the first meeting of the expert group on
climate change and biodiversity of the CBD
to be held in late January in Finland, and in
an expert meeting on co-operation between
the CBD and the United Nations Forum on
Forests (UNFF) in Ghana, 28–30 January
2002. A multistakeholder dialogue will be
held at UNFF2, Costa Rica, 4–15 March.
But Govt Participation Declines
Certified Forest Product Council in the
USA. North American product information
is already available and in the future the
database will also include information on
Europe.
Contact:
www.certifiedwood.org
Survival Guide
Contact:
[email protected]
[email protected]
Taiga Rescue Network has produced a new
publication on forest certification:
Developing
Forest
Stewardship
Standards – A Survival Guide. The guide
is a practical handbook intended for all
stakeholders involved in the development
of FSC standards worldwide. It includes
common problems and tips and covers all
the steps in the standard development
process, drawing on the past experience
of various FSC working groups in 13
different countries.
Oh No, Not That Again
Contact:
[email protected], www.taigarescue.org
From 5 to 8 November, in Yokohama, Japan,
an expert group meeting was held on
monitoring, assessment and reporting on
implementation of the UNFF action plan.
However, only 11 voluntary country
reports have been submitted to the UNFF
Secretariat, and most countries have even
failed to identify their focal point.
The Canadian Forestry Advisers Network
has posted a new presentation on its
website with their view that ‘An
International Forest Convention Is Needed
Now’, despite the fact that 10 years of UN
debate has clearly shown that no-one else
in the world agrees with them.
Indigenous Declaration
FSC Database
Representatives of indigenous peoples
attending the 7th COP of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC), held in Morocco in
November this year, issued a declaration
demanding recognition of their rights and
warning of the dangers of the agreement
on including ‘carbon sinks’ in the Kyoto
Protocol.
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
certificates are now listed on the internet
via a new database developed by the
Contact:
www.wrm.org.uy/actores/CCC/
IPMarrakesh.html
Contact:
www.rcfa-cfan.org/english/issues.14.html
news
Europe
Public Procurement
In October the Climate Alliance Conference
passed a resolution calling on the
European Parliament to allow the use of
public money in environmenally sensitive
ways, and to favour eco-labels on all levels
of public procurement.
Source:
www.klimabuendnis.org/kbhome/start.htm
Forest Footprint
WWF have recently published the UK’s
Forest Footprint. The UK is the world’s
second biggest importer of forest
products, importing 85% of its needs. The
Minister for the Environment has pledged
to reform government procurement of
forest products, to source more FSC
certified products and to promote
responsible forestry on the estimated 6.4
million ha of overseas forests needed to
supply the UK market.
Contact:
www.wwf-uk.org
Finns Break Moratorium
Recent evidence shows that the Karelia
moratorium on logging in old growth forest
in Murmansk is being broken by the
Russian company Polaria, managed by
Michael Nazarov, and that the moratorium
timber is being purchased by the Finnish
company Fromlog Ky.
Contact:
[email protected]
Russia
Hot Air
At the climate change COP7 in Morocco
in November, Russia negotiated an
increase from 17 to 30 million tonnes in the
official level of carbon that their forests
are able to absorb (see TN35). This hugely
increases their quota of ‘hot air’, or spare
greenhouse gas absorption capacity,
which they can trade with nations with
surplus emissions, such as Canada, Japan
and the USA. Unfortunately, the USA, by
far the most polluting nation and thus
potentially Russia’s biggest customer, has
withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol, so
Russia may have difficulty finding buyers
for all that hot air.
Source:
Russian Environmental Digest, ECO news
Hijau and Indigenous People
At a conference in Malaysia in November,
indigenous peoples’ representatives from
Russia and other Asian countries
compared notes on how Rimbunan Hijau’s
activities are impacting on their lives. In
1997 the Malaysian mega-company
bought a massive logging concession in
the Russian Far East. Now their logging
activities in Khabarovsky Krai have
overrun indigenous hunting and fishing
territory. Rimbunan Hijau had been fined
several times for infraction of forestry laws
but there are concerns that the regional
administration is becoming less vigilant
in recording infractions, after massive
payments to the adminstration by the
company.
Contact:
Forest Networking, forests.org
Land Reform
President Putin has signed the longawaited legislation allowing the sale of land
across the country. The Land Code permits
the sale, to both Russians and foreigners,
of about 2% of the country’s 1.7 billion ha
of land, including commercial land, land in
cities and about 40 million dacha
(summerhouse and garden) plots. Sales of
the 25% of Russia that is agricultural land
are to be covered in forthcoming
legislation. Will the 60% of the land that is
forest be next?
Source:
RED files.
Samarga Moratorium
The Russian forestry enterprise Terneiles
recently announced a 2-year moratorium
on logging of the Samarga River basin
forests in the Ussuri taiga, Russian Far
East (see TN36 Action Alert). Terneiles
has also indicated it is willing to go for
certification of its production and some of
its forest holdings according to FSC
standards. With about 1500 employees it
is one of the largest harvesting and timberprocessing companies of the Primorsky
region.
Source:
Russian Forest Update
www.forests.org/recent/2001/ruforupd.htm
Russia’s Forest Exports
Russia’s forestry service estimates that
exports of forest and paper products could
total US$4.5 billion for 2001. This will
include more than 40 million m 3 of
roundwood timber worth more than US$1
billion. Russia’s total logging in 2001 is
140 million m3 of commercial timber, 6%
more than in 2000. Official figures are that
Russia has over 75 billion m3 of timber, and
could harvest up to 541 million m 3 of
commercial timber annually, though
envirionmentalists estimate much lower
figures. Logging peaked in 1991 at 380
million m3.
Source:
Interfax News Agency
North America
Sun Peaks Crisis
The Secwepemc people of Skwelkwekwelt,
British Columbia, are appealing for help as
they are driven from their homelands to
make way for a controversial ski resort. The
Sun Peaks resort is planning a massive
expansion on the Secwepemc traditional
territory. Protesters have been evicted and
face criminal charges for trespass. They
claim that roads to traditional gathering
grounds have been blocked, and that the
Ministry of Highways has destroyed the
home of a Secwepemc family.
Contact:
Skwelkwekwelt Protection Center
[email protected]
Endangered Species Law
The effort to get protection for Canada’s
387 endangered species into law has
reached a critical phase, with Canada’s
federal Standing Committee on the
Environment finishing a 6-month review of
the proposed Species at Risk Act (SARA)
on 27 November. Conservation groups from
across North America are calling on
Canada’s prime minister to take the
committee’s recommendations on board
and strengthen the bill before it is returned
to the House of Commons for a third and
final reading.
Contact:
wildcanada.net
Alberta Forest Policy Problems
A new report demonstrates that Alberta’s
forest policies must change if Alberta’s
forest industry is to remain competitive.
The report, Structural Impediments to FSC
Certification in Alberta: Overcoming
Barriers to Well-Managed Forests,
documents that a lack of protected forests
and unmanaged petroleum industry
activity severely hampers the Alberta forest
industry’s ability to become FSC certified.
In some places, oil and gas activity in
Alberta clears almost as much forest as the
forest industry. However, oil and gas
companies have no cutting limits, no
reforestation requirements and do not have
to plan their activities jointly with the wood
harvesting companies to manage forest use.
Contact:
www.fanweb.ca/download/awacmyk.pdf
ISSUE 37 Winter 2001 TAIGA NEWS 3
pulp&paper
Growing Global
Ola Larsson, Taiga Rescue Network
The past few years have seen a tremendous increase in large corporate mergers in all sectors, and the forest industry is no
exception. All large forest companies have been subject to mergers and acquisitions and nothing indicates that this development is coming to an end in the near future. This article describes the transnationalisation process currently taking place
across the world’s forest sector using the example of the Swedish forest group,Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget(SCA).
B
Transnationalisation of SCA
100
%
ack in 1996 SCA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sverker
Martin-Löf stated ‘We have done nothing else but peel
off businesses these past years…We have now reached a
stable basis with the three business areas hygiene, packaging
and graphic papers’. SCA is the second largest private forest
owner in the world, with forest holdings amounting to 1.8 million
ha of productive forest. Although not the fastest grower in the
sector, SCA demonstrates the main aspects of current forest sector
developments – specialisation and transnationalisation.
% foreign
sales
50
% foreign
employment
0
80 85 90 95 96 97 98
Specialisation
Year
In the 1980s the buzzword of the Nordic forest sector was vertical
integration. Companies stated proudly that they were vertically
integrated, with activities ranging from energy production and
forest management to producing and selling a wide range of wood
products such as magazine paper, copy paper, newsprint, hygiene
papers and sawn products.
Today corporate ambition is not vertical integration, but rather
specialisation in a few key product areas where the company sees
a profitable market in the future.
SCA has chosen to focus its activities on the two key areas of
hygiene products and packaging, and all sell-offs and acquisitions
are directly or indirectly aimed at increasing the company’s market
share in these product groups. SCA has already sold its power
plants and fine paper utilities and analysts foresee SCA selling
their core activity: the forest and its management. During the period
1998–2000 SCA carried out strategic investments amounting to
US$2 billion and acquired 30 companies. ‘Strategic US acquisitions
create conditions for global expansion within selected product
segments’, says Martin-Löf. In the year 2000 alone, strategic moves
included the sale of the group’s fine paper operations, the
acquisitions of the US company Johnson & Johnson’s
incontinence operations (hygiene products) and Finnish MetsäSerla’s corrugated board operations (packaging), and the formation
of a new sawmill and forest company, Scaninge.
Transnationalisation
If a forest company has chosen to focus its activities on one or
two product groups it will want to increase its production of these
products as larger production levels and market shares are
believed to increase profitability. This growth in production can
either be achieved ‘organically’ (through building new or
improving old plants) or through mergers and acquisitions. As
the world’s paper market at the end of the 1990s was characterised
by an over capacity of production, it has in general been cheaper
to increase market share through mergers with and acquisition of
existing production units than to build new capacity.
With forest companies growing larger and more specialised,
more and more of their production, sales and ownership is located
outside of their home country. Figure 1 shows the past 20 years of
growth of foreign production (and therefore employment) and
4
TAIGA NEWS
ISSUE 37
Winter 2001
Transnational
isation index
Figure showing SCA’s growth in foreign activity. The transnationalisation
index is the average of corporate foreign sales and employment.
sales for the SCA group. To talk about SCA as a ‘Swedish’ company
and their sales ‘abroad’ may no longer be appropriate when a
company has reached SCA’s degree of transnationalisation, with
most of its production and sales outside Sweden. Foreign
ownership is growing, but remains a minority (21% at the end of
2000).
Future Developments and Possible Consequences
Business analysts claim that the forest industry in Finland and
Sweden was leading the global forest industry’s restructuring at
the end of the 1990s. Most analysts also agree that the forest
sector is still rather unconsolidated, compared with similar sectors,
and therefore will see further mergers and acquisitions.
The transnationalisation of the forest industry has not yet
attracted a lot of attention from the forest movement. Views and
opinions on the developments differ, but some concerns that have
been raised include double ecological and social standards within
the same forest company and the potential absence of a sense of
responsibility when the forest operations in one country are owned
by an international corporation with its headquarters in another
continent. Stora Enso is one such transnational forest company
that has received criticism for having different environmental
ambitions for its forestry operations in different countries. For
example, the company has FSC certified forest operations in
Sweden while it has lacked FSC ambitions in neighbouring Finland.
Another reason for criticism has been that the company refuses
to buy Russian old-growth wood but still uses controversial
Finnish old-growth wood in its processing industry.
Even though the dominant view on transnationalisation
amongst the environmental movement is scepticism, some activists
have made the point that transnationalisation may be a good
development as fewer and bigger companies can be better targets
and negotiating partners than a larger number of smaller
companies. Whether bigger is better remains to be seen.
Contact:
[email protected]
pulp&paper
On Jaakko’s Tracks
Elisa Peter, Taiga Rescue Network
Although not as well known by forest activists as the big forest companies, Jaakko Pöyry is the world’s largest forestry and
engineering consultancy firm, which has been promoting the rapid expansion of industrial forestry, plantation forestry and the
pulp and paper sector around the world over the last 40 years. This short profile gives a flavour of its activities.
T
he Jaakko Pöyry group was established in 1958 in Finland
and has since then been involved in projects in more than
100 countries. It expanded internationally in the 1970s and
1980s to promote the Scandinavian forestry model abroad and to
play an increasingly active role in the globalisation of the pulp
and paper industry by opening offices in more than 30 countries.
As of today, it has designed 350 major pulp and paper mills in
boreal, temperate and tropical countries alike, including Russia,
Scandinavia and Canada (see the list of the most recent pulp and
paper projects below). The group’s net sales have grown from
about EUR 50 million in 1985 to some EUR 475 million today.
Jaakko Pöyry works by providing advice and ‘special expertise’
to the forest products industry and forest officials on a wide range
of issues such as: planning, building and maintenance of pulp
and paper mills, buying and selling (mostly) Scandinavian forestry
machinery and pulp and paper technology, establishing tree
plantations (including carbon plantations in the south, e.g.
Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Brazil), logging, carbon
trading, trade flows, investments and banking.
Underlying Jaakko Pöyry’s ‘special expertise’ is the assumption
of ever increasing paper consumption, an estimated volume of
growth of 10 million tonnes a year (t/a), and the growing
consolidation of the industry, which the firm is facilitating through
its projects. Jaakko Pöyry is there to help the industry to respond
to this projected increased demand for paper by planning for higher
production capacity through the improvement of the efficiency of
existing mills and the construction of new mills. Jaakko Pöyry is
also promoting mergers, acquisitions and new business alliances
within the industry by offering special financing and strategic
consulting services. Often, these projects are financed by
multilateral aid agencies (such as TACIS), governments or
international financial institutions (World Bank, etc.).
In the last few years, Jaakko Pöyry has been trying to green its
image. Its annual reports stress that ‘environmental protection is
a guiding principle in all activities undertaken’ and the group
claims to be a pioneer in ‘developing forest plantations, carbon
sinks, re-use of wood wastes, and closed-loop technology for
pulp and paper mills’. Indeed Jaakko Pöyry is one of the main
actors involved in creating the conditions for establishing largescale industrial pulp, paper and carbon sinks plantations in the
South, most of which have been strongly opposed by local
communities and environmental groups.
In the boreal region, Russia provides a good example of Jaakko
Pöyry’s work. The firm conducted an assessment and planning of
the entire forestry sector for the Russian government in 1992,
which led to the recommendation that Russia double its annual
cut from 100 million m3 to 200 million m3, a figure they estimated
would still be far below the potential optimum harvest level.
Later, in 1998–2000, the company conducted a TACIS-funded
assessment of the Baikalsk and Selenginsk pulp mills. The Baikalsk
mill is located on the east shore of Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia
and within the territory of a World Heritage Site (see page 8). In
1998 the average distance for timber transport to the mill was 1400
km and Jaakko Pöyry advocated switching to timber supplies in
Buryatia and along the Trans-Siberian railway between the cities
of Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk (a 600 km radius from the mill). This is
all old-growth forest. The firm even advocated using thinning
and sanitary logging in the water protection zone on the shores of
the lake to provide the mill with raw material. Although it was
critical of the logging methods used at present and said that they
would lead to the gradual degradation of the forest in the lake
basin the final recommendation of its study was to expand and
modernise the mill.
Jaakko Pöyry has no policy of transparancy and many of its
reports are hugely expensive. But given its huge influence on the
industry we need to keep a careful eye on its work, and insist that
governments and donors who fund its activities fully disclose the
details of the arrangements and results.
Sources:
Jaakko Pöyry. Annual Reports 1998, 1999, 2000 and www.poyry.com
Lang C., Hildyard N., Geary K., Grainger M. (2000) Dams Incorporated:
The Records of Twelve European Dam Building Companies. SSNC Report.
Sutton, J. (2001) Baikal Environmental Wave, personnal communication
WRM (1998) Jaakko Pöyry: More Than Mere Consultants. World Rainforest
Movement. Bulletin 15
Contact:
[email protected]
Some major pulp and paper projects conducted by Jaakko Pöyry in the last 2 years.
•
Main engineering consultant for new paper mill in Canada (Stora Port Hawkesbury, 350 000 t/a, 1998).
•
Main engineering consultant for expansion of chemical pulp mill in Finland (Metsä-Botnia, 565 000 t/a, 1998).
•
Process engineering for rebuild of fine paper machine in Sweden (MoDo Paper, 250 000 t/a, 1998).
•
Process engineering for new fine paper machine in China (APRIL, 300 000 t/a, 1998).
•
Detail engineering for expansion of chemical pulp mill in Brazil (Aracruz Cellulose SA, 700 000 t/a expansion, 2000).
•
Main engineering consultant for de-inking plant and paper machine in USA (Madison Paper Company, 2000).
•
Main engineering consultant for the Baikalsk and Selenginsk pulp mills in Russia (funding from TACIS, 1998–2000).
ISSUE 37 Winter 2001 TAIGA NEWS
5
pulp&paper
In North America...
Editorial
Weyerhaeuser
Continued from page 2
It is hard to know what impact any
of the pulp giants is having on the
boreal forests. What proportion of
current fibre originates from old-growth
forest, from secondary forest, or from
plantations? What proportion is
recycled? What are the trends in these
sectors? We need more information
gathering in this sector and transparent
dissemination.
The trade in fibre is global and it is
extremely difficult to track the origins
of most products in this sector,
particularly as so many are low-profile
disposable commodities such as toilet
rolls, nappies, pizza cartons and
newspapers. How do we get consumers
to care whether their cereal box came
from a sustainably managed forest? If
we want a packaging industry that is
responsible with regard to forests, we
need to understand better the markets
they are working for, and use that
understanding to raise consumer
awareness of their impacts. Whilst
traceability is difficult, it is not
insurmountable using approaches such
as those developed by Springer-Verlag
and UPM-Kymmene (www.upmkymmene.com/tracingimports).
Some countries, such as the UK,
have begun to take seriously their global
‘forest footprint’, an idea pioneered by
non-governmental
organisations
(NGOs). But we also need to see big
businesses such as the pulp and paper
industries named here, researching and
making public their ecological
footprints.
A final key question is, who is
financing the sector? The research by
Profundo shows how much power
financial institutions have in the
industry. These institutions always put
conditions on their contracts with
clients and these should be used to
encourage responsible forestry. They
should insist that their investments are
not used to contribute to the
destruction of old-growth forests. They
should underscore their commitment by
providing financial incentives for the
development of transparent and robust
fibre tracking systems and encourage
sourcing of fibre from Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) certified
forest management. A code of
responsible investment in forestry
would be a useful starting point.
Mandy Haggith and Bill Ritchie
6
TAIGA NEWS
ISSUE 37
Winter 2001
Washington State, USA.
Produces pulp, packaging and newsprint.
Convicted of violations of air and water
quality and waste management standards.
Website: www.weyerhaeuser.com
Abitibi Consolidated
Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Produces newsprint, recycled products
and timber.
Causes controversy by logging in primary
boreal forests. Recently sued in Quebec
by the Grand Council of the Cree, regarding
practices in the area under the James Bay
and Northern Quebec Agreement (Cree
treaty).
Website: www.abicon.com
Domtar
Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Produces packaging, free sheet,
publishing, speciality and technical paper
and timber.
Controversially logging in primary boreal
forests. Also recently sued by the Grand
Council of the Cree.
Who’s
the borea
Website: www.domtar.com
In Scandinavia...
Norske Skogindustrier ASA
(aka Norske Skog)
Lysaker, Norway.
Produces newsprint, improved newsprint,
directory paper and gloss newsprint.
Buys wood from old growth and key
habitats. Supports Pan-European Forest
Certification (PEFC). Has operations in
Asia but little information is available about
them.
Website: www.norskeskog.com
Stora Enso
Helsinki, Finland.
Owns land in Finland, Sweden, USA,
Canada and Portugal
Produces magazine paper, newsprint, fine
paper, packaging and board.
Stora Enso is one of the major buyers of
old-growth wood in Finland but the
company refuses to purchase old-growth
wood in Sweden and Russia. The
company’s Swedish operations are FSC
certified, while it has not shown the same
ambitions for its Finnish forest lands.
Website: www.storaenso.com
Profiles of some of th
companies involved in the
SCA
Stockholm, Sweden.
Produces hygiene products, packaging
and publication papers.
SCA is FSC certified and delivered the first
FSC certified magazine paper to BBC
Wildlife in 2000. However, SCA is the only
major Swedish promotor of exotic
lodgepole pine plantations in Sweden and
is lobbying the Swedish FSC Council to
approve this practice. For more on its
transnationalisation see page 4.
Website: www.sca.com
UPM-Kymmene
Helsinki, Finland.
Produces printing paper, sawn timber and
plywood.
UPM-Kymmene is one of the two biggest
pulp&paper
In Russia...
Ilim Pulp Enterprise
Saint Petersburg.
Produces board, pulp, paper and plywood.
Logs old-growth forest.
Website: www.russianpapermills.com
Titan/Arkhbum/Arkhangelsk PPM
Arkhangelsk.
Produces pulp, board and paper
Logs old-growth forest. Has poor contacts
with NGOs.
Syktyvkar Forest Enterprise
Syktyvkar, Komi.
Produces paper, board and plywood.
Logs old-growth forest. Has poor contacts
with NGOs.
pulping
al forests?
he major boreal forest
pulp and paper industry.
Name
Number of
Employees
A rea of
forest
(million
ha)
A rea FSC
certified
(million
ha)
Weyerhaeuser
16,000
47,000
1 5 .6
0
Stora Enso
11,645
45,000
3
1 .6
UPM-Kymmene
9034
33,000
?
?
SCA
6244
40,000
1 .6
1 .6
A bitibi
Consolidated
3612
18,000
?
0
2980
10,500
?
?
Domtar
2289
12,500
?
2 sites
Södra
1119
3000
2
0
510
28,000
2 .2
0
Syktyvkar Forest
Enterprise
243
10,000
7
0
Titan/A rkhbum/
A rkhangelsk PPM
214
15,000
?
0
Norske Skog
buyers of Finnish old-growth forest timber
and this is at odds with their support for
the old-growth logging moratorium in
north-west Russia.
Sales
(2000)
(US$
million)
Website: www.upm-kymmene.com
Södra
Växjö, Sweden.
Produces pulp and sawn timber.
The company is owned by 34,000 forest
farmers in Southern Sweden. Its target for
the end of 2002 is to certify 1.2 million ha
(more than 60% of its land) to PEFC
standards. Despite large environmental
ambitions on the processing side the
group has decided not to promote FSC
certification amongst its members.
Website: www.sodra.com
Ilim Pulp
Enterprise
ISSUE 37 Winter 2001 TAIGA NEWS
7
Foreign investment in Russia
Jan Willem van Gelder, Profundo
The Russian pulp and paper industry is experiencing a period of strong growth with muc
foreign investments. This article examines four examples of foreign investments in R
A
t the moment, there are about 160 pulp and paper mills in Russia. Ten
major pulp and paper mills cover more than two-thirds of the total output,
and all are increasing production. Russia’s pulp output reached 5.8 million
tonnes in 2000 (14% more than in 1999) and paper and board output reached 5.2
million tonnes (+15%). This output growth is mainly focused on foreign markets
and 28% of the pulp production and 45% of the paper and board production is
exported. Foreign investment is behind much of this growth, so it is worth looking
in some detail at some of the financial players behind the growth of four big mills.
Svetogorsk
The Svetogorsk Pulp and Paper Mill is an
integrated pulp and paper mill, located 200
km north-west of St Petersburg, close to
the Finnish border. It was acquired in
January 1995 by the Swedish company
Tetra Laval, which invested US$127 million
in the plant in the 3 years it owned it but
never realised a profit.
In January 1999 the pulp and paper mill
was sold to the largest pulp and paper
company in the world, International Paper
(United States). The Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (United States)
provided political risk insurance of US$150
million. The Multilateral Investment
Guarantee Agency (MIGA, part of the
World Bank group) guaranteed the equity
investment of US$30 million.
International Paper has invested
around US$100 million in the pulp and
paper mill in the past 3 years. Paper
production has increased to 325,000 tonnes
per year, and Svetogorsk is now Russia’s
leading supplier of office paper, with 40%
of the market. Turnover reached US$185
million in 2000.
The adjacent tissue plant (which
belonged to Svetogorsk Pulp and Paper
Mill as well) was sold separately by Tetra
Laval to the Swedish company Svenska
Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) for US$26
million in June 1998. Svetogorsk Tissue
operates Russia’s most modern tissue
machine, built in 1989. Annual production
amounts to about 20,000 tonnes,
corresponding to 20% of the needs of the
Russian market. Current capacity is 30,000
tonnes, but SCA is planning to increase it
to 40,000 tonnes in four years by an
investment of US$12 million.
8
TAIGA NEWS
ISSUE 37
Winter 2001
Major Russian pulp
and paper mills
1. Svetogorsk
2. Ilim Pulp Enterprise
3. Kommunar
4. Kondopoga
5. Arkhangelsk PPM
6. Kotlas
7. Syktyvkar
8. Solikamskbumprom
9. Ust-Ilimsk
10. Bratsk
11. Baikalsk
Syktyvkar
Syktyvkar Forest Enterprise is a paper mill
in the Komi Republic. The Austrian paper
company Frantschach owns 19.4% of the
shares of Syktyvkar. Frantschach itself is
70% owned by Mondi Paper from South
Africa, which is part of the large Anglo
American mining conglomerate.
Other foreign shareholders are
Burlington Investment Ltd (9.0%), New
Europe Investment Fund (7.8%) and
Conwey Holdings Ltd (6.2%). The
investment programme of Syktyvkar, which
aims at a considerable growth in volume
together with product upgrading, is partly
financed by the ExIm Bank of the United
States. Syktyvkar also has obtained a loan
from the Bank of America (United States),
of which US$34.8 million was outstanding
at the end of 1999.
Baikalsk
The Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill was built
on the shores of the Lake Baikal in Siberia
in the 1960s as a military factory. The plant
has been criticised heavily because its
waste water is polluting Lake Baikal.
Despite the mill’s treatment facility,
environmentalists estimate that it dumps
135 kg of dioxin a year into the lake. This is
threatening all 1500 species of animals and
plants in the lake, including the unique
nerpa (freshwater seals).
The mill is nearing the end of its life
span, but its managers and the 3000
workers are eager to keep the mill open.
Paid by the US Agency for International
Development, a plan has been drawn up to
switch to a non-chlorine manufacturing
process, eliminating dioxin, waste water
and the burning of coal. This project would
cost US$ 600 million (see also page 5).
In December 2000, the governor of the
Irkutsk
region
discussed,
with
representatives of the Japanese trading
firm Marubeni, Japanese investments in
the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill.
Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill
(Arkhbum) is located in Novodvinsk on
the shore of the White Sea. The company
has annual sales exceeding US$300 million.
Its annual production of 700,000 tonnes
of pulp accounts for 12% of Russian
production. Its share in the Russian
production of container board is over 36%.
Arkhbum also produces wood fibre
boards, paper and fair-paper products. A
large part of production is exported to
Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands,
a’s pulp and paper industry
h of this expansion financed by
Russia’s pulp and paper mills.
Spain, Italy, Poland and South Korea.
In 1996 the company was on the verge
of bankruptcy. It was taken over by the
Titan Group from Russia, the paper trading
firms Wilfried Heinzel from Austria (which
now holds 13% of the shares) and Conrad
Jacobson from Germany, and another
foreign investor. The management was
replaced, and large investments were made
in modernisation of production. In 1999,
Arkhbum realised a profit of US$40 million,
and it is planning to increase output of all
its products.
In July 2000, Arkhbum obtained a US$9
million 1-year loan from International
Moscow Bank (Russia) and Bank
Austria Creditanstalt, a subsidiary of
Bayerische Hypo und Vereinsbank
(Germany). The proceeds of the loan were
used to finance the import of corrugated
cardboard packaging equipment.
In August 2000, Arkhbum obtained a
further US$4 million loan from Erste Bank
(Austria) to reconstruct an unbleached
pulp fibre line. The machinery is supplied
by the Austrian company Lenzing
Technik.
Contact:
[email protected]
Nordic Footprint
Chris Lang
It is not just the boreal forests that are impacted by the pulp and paper industry based in the boreal region. Many northern
companies supply machinery and ‘expertise’ in developing countries in the south, and thus have much bigger footprints than
we might expect. The example of Scandinavian operations in Thailand gives us a flavour of what is involved.
I
n the last two decades, the pulp and paper industry in Thailand
has expanded hugely to an industry producing almost 4 million
tonnes a year (t/a) of paper and board, dependent on eucalyptus
plantations to supply the raw material. The impact on Thailand’s
communities and forests has been severe. When forests and
woodlands are converted to eucalyptus plantations, villagers’
livelihoods are endangered as they lose a source of food, medicine
and firewood. Water sources dry up, rice crops near the plantations
fail and villagers lose grazing land.
Despite these impacts, funding from aid agencies in Canada,
USA, Japan, Australia, Scandinavia as well as the World Bank and
the Asian Development Bank has helped the expansion of the pulp
and paper industry in Thailand. During the 1990s, several new
pulp and paper mills started operations in Thailand: Siam Cellulose
(1992), Phoenix II (1994) and Advance Agro (1996). All three new
mills are designed to use eucalyptus as raw material and all three
use technology and machinery from Northern countries.
Phoenix’s first production line started up in 1982. The consulting
engineer for the 70,000 t/a mill was the German–Austrian company,
Klockner-Voest, and the pulping technology was supplied by the
Swedish company, Kamyr. Phoenix’s second mill opened in 1994,
at a cost of US$240 million. The financing included an US$80 million
loan from several Scandinavian banks, led by Leonia Bank of Finland
and guaranteed by Finnvera, the Finnish Export Credit Agency.
The Finnish government pays all the loan interest due to Leonia
Bank: it is the largest concessionary loan ever granted by the
Finnish government.
Advance Agro is the largest fully integrated pulp and paper
manufacturer in Thailand and exports 70% of its production. Two
years ago, Stora Enso bought up 19.9% of Advance Agro. Under the
deal Stora Enso is assured of a market for at least 12,000 tonnes of
long-fibre pulp from its mills in Europe and gets exclusive international
marketing rights of Advance Agro’s products outside Japan.
A series of Scandinavian companies has won lucrative
contracts to deliver machinery, equipment or technical services
on pulp and paper projects in Thailand, including Ahlstrom, Sunds
Defibrator, Nopon Oy, Valmet, Kvaerner and Jaakko Poyry.
In addition to funding specific pulp and paper mills,
Scandinavian aid has helped promote industrial forestry and the
pulp industry in general. The Thai Forest Sector Master Plan
(TFSMP), completed in 1994, was funded by the Finnish
government and carried out by Jaakko Pöyry. The TFSMP had an
overwhelming bias towards industrial forestry and the pulp and
paper industry and aimed to formulate the relevant policies and to
develop institutions to implement the plan. Pöyry’s
recommendations included handing over 4 million ha of farmers’
land to private companies for tree plantations to feed the pulp and
paper industry.
The plan was opposed by Thai NGOs and was never
implemented by the Thai government. In 1995, the Finnish
International Development Agency commissioned the World
Conservation Union (IUCN) to carry out a review of the TFSMP.
The review pointed out ‘serious flaws’ in the plan, and stated ‘if
implemented either partially or in full, the plan would have many
widespread, permanent social, economic and environmental
impacts’. IUCN’s review team also pointed out that ‘the project
was established with serious flaws in its design and methodology’,
with 80% of consultancies going to international consultants who
were ‘almost exclusively Finnish or Swedish and none spoke Thai’.
Yet the flow of cash from the north continues to this damaging
industry. Phoenix is currently planning to expand its pulp and
paper mill, and the company is again looking to gain export credit
from the Finnish and Swedish governments.
Contact:
[email protected]
ISSUE 37 Winter 2001 TAIGA NEWS
9
certification
Sustainable for Whom?
Chanda Meek, Boreal Footprint Project
A new study, Sustainable for Whom? documents small-scale forest management, looking at
both FSC certification and benefits to local populations, in order to analyse how policy can
support socially beneficial forest management.
T
he Boreal Footprint Project and the Taiga Rescue Network
have recently released a paper called Sustainable for Whom?
discussing communities, the Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC) and social benefits in Canada and Sweden. The purpose of
the study was to examine regional policy and legal conditions for
market-based certification to reward both green and equitable
forestry, that is forestry which is good for the environment while
providing meaningful work and economic livelihoods for local
people. The study focuses on four communities: Tåssåsen Sámi
community (Sweden), Drevdagen (Sweden), the Algonquins of
Barriere Lake (Canada) and Pictou Landing First Nation (Canada).
Each community illustrates a different aspect of community
survival and forest management in the boreal region.
Market-based certification of forest management is the latest
effort by civil society to internalise the environmental and social
costs of wood production by endorsing a green label for products
that have been produced in a manner reflecting broad
environmental and social standards. The FSC in particular has
received enthusiastic support from environmental NGOs. In
Sweden, FSC has been vigorously pursued by both NGOs and
indigenous peoples, with approximately 43% of productive forest
land certified. In Canada, only 0.015% of the country’s forested
land base is certified.
Findings from Four Communities
The Sámi community of Tåssåsen has been in conflict with small
forest owners who refuse reindeer grazing on their lands.
Unimpeded access to grazing grounds is the main benefit the
Sámi receive from FSC certification. However, these benefits are
not sufficient to ensure Sámi livelihoods, as they can only access
a fraction of their grazing grounds. This voluntary agreement must
be broadened to include non-compliant forest owners or the
Swedish government should pass a clear, binding recognition of
Sámi rights.
Drevdagen is a small Swedish community that has a longstanding land title dispute with the Swedish State. Despite the
FSC certification of Sveaskog, the local forest manager, the people
of Drevdagen have not received any substantive benefits from
‘improved forest management’. The lack of benefits stems from
Drevdagen’s lack of economic infrastructure and absence of
decision-making power.
The Algonquins of Barriere Lake are an indigenous
community based in Quebec, Canada. The Algonquins negotiated
the far-reaching social benefits and comanagement Trilateral
Agreement, in which the largest forestry operator (Domtar), the
Province and the Canadian government eventually agreed to share
governance and benefits from forestry within the Algonquins’
traditional lands. At present, the Algonquins are not receiving
any social benefits from Domtar operations. Central to their future
is the implementation of the Agreement, which has recently made
headlines because of Canada’s reluctance to pay its promised
share of the implementation provisions.
Pictou Landing First Nation is an indigenous community in
Nova Scotia, Canada which has been FSC-certified for over a
year, and has ambitious plans for capturing full social and
10
TAIGA NEWS
ISSUE 37
Winter 2001
environmental benefits from their culturally-based forest
management plan. Pictou Landing, though depending on a modest
sized forest, is on its way to turning a profit and opening doors to
its community. Crucial to its success has been developmental
support through the First Nations Forestry Association in Nova
Scotia, community support for culturally-based ecoforestry, and
the land rights (title and reserve land) to pursue its own agenda.
Conclusions
Forestry that is most likely to be responsive to multiple uses within
a community and based upon shared values is likely to be based
upon community ownership and/or control of the resource base.
Sustainable development relies on community empowerment,
whether or not communities have the flexibility to pursue their
own agendas for resource development. When we discuss socially
beneficial forestry we need to address two basic questions: who
owns and controls the forest, and who benefits from its current
use?
Policy frameworks that support community sustainability
include the following: binding tenure, customary use or indigenous
rights recognised by the state; legislated social development
agreements with specific targets, goals and timelines; and forest
management policy that includes meaningful, targeted reform of
the underlying causes of forest degradation such as unsustainable
tenure agreements.
While the FSC cannot take the place of a rural development
programme, it has some potential to provide community leverage
or to reinforce existing tenure agreements. If NGOs and the public
want to ‘green’ and socially improve large corporate tenureholders, a credible development programme for affected local
communities must compliment certification. FSC is a voluntary
labeling scheme, and as such does not have the power to create
jobs, help communities organise, or redistribute wealth in
communities. In fact, very few large corporate tenure agreements
on public or disputed lands provide social benefits in keeping
with a moderate interpretation of FSC Principle 4. Making the
jump from good intentions to the implementation of something
like the Algonquins’ social benefits assessment within the
Trilateral Agreement will require substantial NGO support, state
and regional movement, as well as corporate compliance with the
FSC principles and criteria.
Recommendations
•
•
•
Specific, quantifiable socio-economic targets (such as jobs
per volume wood extracted) should be on checklists for
certifying operations that affect forest-dependent communities.
Criteria for community consultations should be strengthened
(ie. who is invited, what constitutes appropriate consultation?),
especially regarding indigenous communities.
Support for certification needs to be balanced (with time and
resources) by campaigns calling for innovative, communitydriven approaches to sustainability.
Contact:
[email protected]
www.taigarescue.org/publications/reports.shtml
illegal logging
Illegal logging in Estonia
Rein Ahas, Estonian Green Movement.
The Estonian Green Movement has begun a project researching illegal forestry. Their latest results show that it is a major
problem with up to 50% of all exported timber being illegal.
What is Illegal Forestry?
M
ost international organisations
define illegal forestry as activity
not following local or
international laws, contracts or
regulations, including violation of
environmental, forestry, logging and tax
rules; theft of forest products (forest theft);
and document fabrication. Timber that is
produced using these methods is illegal.
Environmental NGOs see it as a big problem
because illegal structures and operations
generate new problems and new markets
for this timber; illegal actors do not follow
rules and are difficult to control.
Approximately 50% of the timber
exported from Estonia is illegal. It is a
serious problem for Estonian forestry and
for the many Scandinavian companies
permanently using Estonian timber. The
scale of illegal (or shadow) forestry in
Estonia is demonstrated by the following
figures for various categories of deception,
from estimates by the Estonian Green
Movement (EGM) in % of the total volume
of felled timber.
• Forest theft – 5%.
• Violation of felling regulations – 20%.
• Not
using
or
fabricating
documentation – 20%.
• Not paying employer ’s taxes and
income tax – 50%.
• VAT frauds; using intermediates, offshore firms and secret identities;
tampering – 15%.
There is overlap between categories
because if one stage of business is illegal
it often generates new violations.
Where is the TimberGoing?
Estonia is the second largest exporter of
wood products to Finland after Russia, and
the third biggest exporter of wood
products to Sweden after Latvia and
Russia. Big companies that buy Estonian
timber use local supplier companies and
several intermediate or offshore firms for
legalisation of illegal timber. Harvesting,
sorting and local transport of illegal timber
is often done by small companies with
unclear ownership. The origin of timber is
hard to discover because of ‘very soft’ laws
and the lack of legal demands for
management plans. The timber changes
owner several times and its tracks are lost.
As a final guarantee, unscrupulous
exporters and local producers surround
themselves by chains of friendly
intermediates under their control.
NGO Action Plan
Environmental NGOs have created an
action plan to fight these problems. EGM
has started a governmental roundtable on
illegal forestry, prepared materials for
discussion and interviewed Estonian
stakeholders and organisations from
consumer countries. Together with the
Estonian Fund for Nature (ELF), we have
started to revise the Forest Code and other
regulations. ELF has devised various
alternative schemes for avoiding illegal
forestry and has run a media campaign to
demonstrate the problem. During 2001 four
roundtables were held with no success
because the State and industries are not
very interested in solving this problem.
The State is not Interested
The Environmental Ministry and its
forestry department do not want to solve
this problem for several reasons.
• Politics: the Minister is from the
•
•
•
Reform party, which represents
business and industry, and they have
a very liberal economic policy.
Stagnation: it is very complicated to
change laws and the ministry does not
take the initiative.
Other sectors: many aspects of the
problem, such as taxation, police and
funding, have to be resolved by other
ministries at the governmental level.
Industry lobbying: Estonian and
Scandinavian industries have an
intensive lobby to keep getting cheap
timber easily.
Industry is not Interested
Companies want to keep their costs down,
avoid competition, and minimise
paperwork. Estonian branches of
international companies have low
environmental awareness and they do not
want to deal with state responsibilities.
Some companies have had signals from
Scandinavian headquarters to control the
legality of timber but the Estonian response
has been to solve the problem by coveringup the corruption even more.
Time for action
The time has now come for us to track and
prove that companies buy and use illegal
logs from Estonia. The time has come to
change Estonian legislation and
environmental performance. EGM, ELF and
other Estonian NGOs are waiting for your
ideas and responses on how to link our
work into bigger campaigns.
There has been some recent progress
with the illegal forestry project. The former
head of the Forestry Department was
replaced by a new and active director on 1
November 2001 and an illegal forestry
working group was created in the Estonian
Forest Development Program. The issue
was also raised within the European
parliament at a meeting on 26 November
2001. We hope the Estonian Timber
Industries Association will now engage
with us in constructive discussions.
Contact:
[email protected]
ISSUE 37 Winter 2001 TAIGA NEWS 11
Taiga Rescue Network and Boreal Forest Network 6th Biennial Conference
Current and Future Boreal Forest Values
Conservation Goals and Market Trends
20–22 September 2002
Winnipeg, Canada
Highlights include a line-up of high profile speakers and a visionary presentation on shifting the paradigm from competing to co-existing
values for the future, plus panel discussions on climate change, traditional values, and defining and protecting the boreal forest.
The conference will be followed by NGO strategy sessions, held in the nearby boreal forest at the Wilderness Edge Retreat Centre on the
Winnipeg River. Feedback from the public sessions will be collected and presented here to inform our strategic debates. We’re working
very hard to keep the costs down so as many participants as possible can come. Watch out for further announcements soon on our
websites at www.borealnet.org and www.taigarescue.org. We look forward to seeing you all next September.
Contact:
Michelle Forrest and Susanne McCrea, conference organisers
[email protected]
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Publisher
Taiga Rescue Network,
Box 116, Ajtte,
S-962 23, Jokkmokk, Sweden.
Tel: +46 971 17039
Fax: +46 971 12057
Email: [email protected]
Web site: www.taigarescue.org
Editors
Mandy Haggith & Bill Ritchie
95 Achmelvich, Lochinver,
IV27 4JB, Scotland, UK.
Tel: +44 1571 844020
Email: [email protected]
Illustrator
Gun Hofgaard, [email protected]
Tel: +46 971 380 63
Printer
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Tel: +44 1309 691640
Paper
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Authors are responsible for their own articles. Permission is granted to reproduce
text providing full credit is given.
© Taiga Rescue Network, 2001.
ISSN:1401-2405
The next issue of Taiga News will focus on the convention on biological diversity. Deadline for contributions is 10 January 2002.