Toying with Indonesia’s Deforestation
Andrew Wirawan
Introduction to Environmental Studies
April 2014

Introduction Indonesia is one of the world’s most forested countries with a wide variety of forest types. These forests are rich in biodiversity and unsurprisingly are an important livelihood source for a great number of people. Somewhere between 6 million and 30 million Indonesians are estimated to be directly dependent on forests (Sunderlin et al. 2000). As Indonesia is a developing country, the government is highly dependent on the forestry sector, as well as forestry-related sectors such as agriculture, estate crops, mining and logging. Consequently, during Indonesia’s history, its forests have been continually exploited, meaning deforestation and forest degradation have been inevitable. This paper will emphasize on deforestation caused by various world famous toy manufacturers, such as Mattel, Disney, Hasbro and Lego. The usage of MTH (Mixed Tropical Hardwood) in their packaging means rainforest clearance in Indonesia, since MTH is only pulped at commercial scales in Indonesia, mainly by APP (Asia Pulp & Paper). Not only deforestation is caused, but this deforestation is also pushing critically endangered wildlife like Sumatran tigers toward extinction and making climate change worse.

The Producer: APP APP or Asia Pulp & Paper is one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world. APP has its roots since the 1970s, and with the founder’s close relation to Indonesia’s former president Soeharto, APP’s access to be the pioneer in Indonesia’s pulping industry was very promising. Now, with 14 major companies in Indonesia and China, APP has a current annual combined pulp, paper, and packaging-grade capacity of more than 18 million tons per year, and market its products to more than 120 countries across six continents. Over the years, APP has received various environmental criticisms from several environmental protection organizations. According to Friends of the Earth, APP has cleared over 280,000 hectares of rainforest in the past decade, and plans to cut another 300,000 over the next five years. The company has been at the center of many environmental controversies and has been accused of being involved in illegal logging in Cambodia and Indonesia, and has breached agreements with three major environmental organizations. The company is also well known for defaulting on debt repayments in 2001, during a period of wide-scale financial problems in the South East Asia region. APP’s track on illegal logging was also found in Yunnan Province in China in 2005, where 24,700 cubic meters of timber were logged without government approval in the project, turning 1.8 million hectares into a real wasteland. Indonesia is the only large-scale producer of either MTH or acacia pulp used in various toy packaging of Mattel, Hasbro, Disney and Lego. Within Indonesia, there are only two-large scale producers of pulp using MTH, which are APP and APRIL. But, APP is the predominant producer of any packaging material with MTH content. APP sources mixed tropical hardwoods (MTH) to produce high-quality virgin pulp for use in copy paper, tissue paper, packaging and glossy print materials to pursue its’ brand of ‘The Provider of High-Quality Paper Products’. In fact, it has been estimated that about 20% of the fiber going into its pulp mills come from clearance of natural forest, while the remainder comes from plantations – largely acacia.

The Buyer: Mattel Luxury packaging is defined as primary and secondary packaging, including caps and closures, used specifically for goods at the premium price end of consumer goods sectors. For manufacturers, luxury packaging is to be seen as a part of branding and marketing boost, giving their customers a pleasant view of the item and the joy of opening the package. USA has long been the largest luxury packaging market, while China ranked second worldwide, but first in Asia Pacific region. As Mattel is an American company, its’ packaging is undoubtedly lux. It’s well known to the market that Mattel’s products are always sold with packaging or inclusive of paper materials, such as instruction manual. Greenpeace has alleged Mattel’s usage of MTH in their products packaging, while Mattel in another occasion emphasizes their company’s paper policy, stating “… Our Barbie Thumbelina line of toys uses 100% recyclable cardboard in packaging and provides instructions on how to recycle”. Not only they stated their packaging is environmental friendly, but also the company’s annual report, philanthropy and global citizenship reports have been printed on FSC-certified paper. They also emphasizes that they’ve recommend their paper suppliers and printers to use the latest FSC-approved paper stocks to print ‘Mattel’s other printed materials’. Mattel also works with third parties companies, such as Amazon.com to eliminate unnecessary additional packaging when their products is shipped to consumers. Besides, Mattel also requires the third parties manufacturers and licensees to meet Mattel’s own independent certification for all materials, including paper products, such as packaging, in terms of the exclusion or limitation use of hazardous chemicals. In a blink of an eye, it does sound as if Mattel is giving its’ best to save the environment, in using environmental friendly materials. However, Mattel does not require any of its third parties manufacturers, printing companies or licensees to avoid trade with companies involved in deforestation, such as APP. Greenpeace investigations not only revealed trade links between Mattel in Indoensia and APP, but also two Indonesian printers producing packaging for Mattel. The two printing companies are Sansisco and PT. BMJ, who both are a loyal customer of APP. Sansisco claims to produce over 1 million items of packaging per week, and it is reported that Mattel is one of its principal clients for two decades. According to a Greenpeace investigation, there are 12 types out of 17 types Barbie packaging containing both MTH and acacia that are printed and produced in Indonesia. 10 Barbie packaging were produced by Sansisco, 2 types of Barbie packaging were printed by PT. BMJ, while the rest 5 types were printed and produced by other printing houses. In another word, most of the “throw-away” toy packaging manufactured from both companies, which contains virgin pulp obtained from Indonesian rainforests, took up 70% of the whole Barbie packaging.

The Activist: NGOs Arising awareness towards Indonesia’s deforestation is mainly done by international NGOs who later work hand in hand with local NGOs. This APP case is one of their projects. Greenpeace has been in the long run campaign for saving Indonesia from deforestation, which later caught WALHI’s (Indonesia’s local NGO) attention. In this case, Greenpeace, making full use of its’ resources, did extensive research, investigation, campaign, tracking and updates. On Greenpeace International homepage, under the “What We Do” menu, there’s a special section for “Indonesia” under the “Forests” tag. This resembles the importance of Indonesian rainforest for the whole ecosystem and Greenpeace’s determination to save it. Overall, I would say this particular campaign held by Greenpeace is very successful, not only because of the result is pleasing, but the deepness of the long run investigation process, as well as the creative campaign technique are the two major factors that gave this campaign a favorable outcome. First of all, the goal of this campaign is very clear: to draw attention to the toy industry’s use of glossy cardboard packaging whose pulp is partly sourced from Indonesian rainforests. Secondly, the investigation done was completed thoroughly. Greenpeace not only investigated the type of virgin pulp used on the various toy packaging, but also enquired into third party manufacturers and licensees who are linked to the usage of MTH. Thirdly, the brilliant, funny and creative campaign, titled ‘Barbie, It’s Over’. Greenpeace used one of Mattel’s most famous toys, Barbie and Ken, to draw attention to Mattel’s relationship with APP. The campaign started with an interview with Ken on June 2011, where Ken was shocked to discover that Barbie was wrapping herself in destroyed rainforest from Indonesia. This video-format interview later went viral on Youtube and other video sites in over 20 different languages. The campaign later was followed by a tweet from Greenpeace, stating Ken called for a break up with Barbie. Subsequently, activists hung up a giant banner of a frowning Ken with the message: “Barbie, it’s over. I don’t date girls that are into deforestation.” Using world’s most used online social networking services, such as Facebook and Twitter, Greenpeace successfully caught media and customers attention to participate in the campaign online. As a result, more than 500,000 emails expressing their dissatisfaction were sent to Mattel regarding Mattel’s relationship with APP. Most of the emails asked Mattel to “immediately implement a new procurement policy for all pulp and paper products, including packaging, and make sure that its products are in ways that don’t damage the environment.” Mattel indeed listened. They came up with new and quite impressive list of sustainable sourcing principles, they are: maximizing post-consumer recycled content where possible, avoiding virgin fiber from controversial sources, and seeking to increase the percentage of fiber that is certified by a credible third party. Moreover, Mattel targeted some environmental-friendly packaging goals, which are: by the end of 2011, 70 percent of Mattel’s paper packaging will be composed of recycled-material or sustainable fiber; by the end of 2015, it will increases to 85 percent. At last, Mattel announced its preference to use FSC-certified fiber whenever possible. Fourthly, the after-work. After various agreements were reached and numerous promises were made, Greenpeace kept an eye on both APP and Mattel, but focusing more on APP, to see their realization process. It is clear that Mattel is taking a big step towards environmental-friendly packaging by cutting off business relation to packaging manufacturers that use virgin pulp from Indonesian rainforest. APP later made a commitment called ‘Vision 2020’ stating APP support Indonesian government’s effort to reforest degraded land, preserve designated protected and conservation areas and increase the endangered species population. On the other hand, Greenpeace published a progress review report relating to ‘APP’s Forest Conservation Policy’. In its’ first and latest issue of October 2013, Greenpeace assessed APP’s forest conservation as slow but inevitable due to the environment complexities. However, up to now, the Greenpeace’s forest reconstruction assessment frequency is undisclosed, and the future assessment schedule is yet unknown.

The Audience: Government Wood, timber and logs have long been one of Indonesia’s main export items. It is well known to the world that Indonesia has abundant amount of woods with various breed. Exporting raw materials indeed brings Indonesia’s economic growth to a whole new level. Nevertheless, pursuing rapid economic growth relying on wood industries resulted in vast amount of deforestation. As government, they are ought to set up laws to limit the forests exploitation and insist everyone to abide. In this APP case, I prefer to blame the government for their irresponsible work attitude. Numerous NGOs have been monitoring and investigating this scandal in a long run, while the government involvement and support could be considered as far from enough. Flawed division of authority between the central government and the region government is one of the main reasons explaining why the Indonesian government seemed reluctant to this matter. The lack of clarity as to the division of authority has led to a situation in which both regional governments and the central government engage in the exploitation of timber, but neither the region nor the central government is prepared to accept responsibility for ensuring sustainable forest management. For instance, in the treatment of an ex-timber concession land. While both levels of government have scrambled to issue timber licenses, neither appears particularly interested in monitoring the forests left standing following the completion of logging in a particular area. This is despite the fact that these areas are particularly vulnerable to deforestation, given that access roads already exist in most of them, thus decreasing the cost of bringing heavy machinery into the area. It is very noticeable that the government is only willing to pay little effort but hoping to get the biggest economical gain in return. Thus, resulting in throwing and diverting responsibilities between internal governments, pointing and blaming other departments’ faults and flaws and so forth practices, leaving the unsolved problem behind.
A good example is the ‘Instruction by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Number 10 Year 2011’. This instruction is made regarding ‘Suspension of Granting New Licenses and Improvement of Natural Primary Forest and Peatland Governance’. In this instruction, there are several government bodies who are appointed to put this into practice, but both central and regional government’s task is similar. Governors and mayors, who belong to regional government, and the Head of National Land Agency, who belongs to central government, three of these government bodies are appointed to do a similar task: to suspend issuance of land usage permit license. A job description like this promotes the lack of division clarity, which allows government employees to blame each other for responsibilities.

The Result: Victory? Mattel decided to cooperate with Greenpeace and had took major changes in its’ packaging policies. That’s a score for Greenpeace. But there’s a bigger score need to be earned, which is preventing and stopping APP from using virgin pulp. I personally would say that APP’s effort in saving the environment is still far from ideal. Despite their ‘Vision 2020’ commitment, there’s an evidence hinting APP’s reluctant in saving the rainforest. Quoting from The Los Angeles Times, an APP spoke person said that they “applaud Mattel’s commitments to recycling, wood legality, protection of high conservation value forest”. APP added that it “supports all credible industry certification, however, we strongly urge companies to not limit their procurement policies to one standard, in this case FSC, which discriminates against products from Indonesia and other developing markets.” As we all could probably guess, APP doesn’t sell fiber certified by FSC. By stating this statement, we could conclude that APP to some extent is still looking forward to producing products made of virgin pulp and delaying the alteration of environmental friendly manufacturing material and process. When NGOs effort doesn’t make any big changes, I think it is time for government to make use of their authority. Mattel cutting off connection with APP might means APP reduce their virgin pulp production, but that does not mean APP will stop producing it. There’s no clear sanction after what APP had done to Indonesian rainforests, not to mention their close relationship with the government, especially in the Soeharto era. Battling deforestation is not doable without the government’s support. In spite of the fact that APP had launched conservation policy, more intense supervision is needed, not only from environmental organizations such as Greenpeace or WALHI, but also from the government who has the authority to give out penalties to the violators. As discussed on previous section, the flawed division of authority between central and region in Indonesian government is one of the biggest problems why both government bodies don not feel responsible about this matter. There’s much more need to be done to combat deforestation, not only in Indonesia, but also in the other parts of the world, such as the Amazon. More environmental activists and organizations is needed to promote environmental awareness and make environmental issues known to the world. From this case, we could conclude that campaign style matters a lot. The traditional demonstration, shout-outs in front of government office way of campaign is too old-fashioned and people are just so used to it they can’t care less. Activists need to use new approaches, make use of online media or any other mainstream medias to advertise their campaign and gain more support. After-work supervision and assessment needs to be done by both activists and government. Activists have to make sure that it is working along with the schedule, while government makes sure violators get penalized.

Reference: 1. Greenpeace, 2013. APP’s forest conservation policy: Program review October 2013. Accessed through: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/Campaign-reports/Forests-Reports/APP-Forest-Conservation-Policy/ 2. Greenpeace, 2013. Down to zero: How Greenpeace is ending deforestation in Indonesia. Accessed through: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/down-to-zero/ 3. Luke Lazarus Arnold, 2008. Deforestation in decentralized Indonesia: What’s law got to do with it?. Lead Journal, Australia. Accessed through: http://www.lead-journal.org/content/08075.pdf 4. Sunderlin, W.D. and Resosudarmo, I.A.P, 1996. Laju dan penyebab deforestrasi di Indonesia: penelahaan kerancuan dan penyelesaiannya. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia. 5. Sunderlin, W.D et al, 2000. The effect of the Indonesian economic crisis on small farmers and natural forest cover in the outer islands. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia. 6. Violleta, S. et al, 2008. Underlying cause of regulation, law enforcement, government aspect on forest and land fires in Indonesia. Indonesian Center for Environmental Law, Jakarta, Indonesia. Accessed through: www.cifor.cgiar.org/trofcca/home/products/attachments/Violleta%202008%20Underlying%20Causes%20of%20Regulation,%20Law%20Enforcement.pdf

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