According to the article, Indonesia (the tropics portion) is seen as an important
country in fighting against climate change.
It would seem however that they have recently come under scrutiny and ordered
to stop a great deal of deforestation as well as destruction of peatland in
the country. The leading company
situated in Indonesia who has been accused of this is Asia Pulp & Paper
Group (or APP) a company who are major supplier of paper pulp and packaging for
Asia. In response, the company has stated (under
measures adapted on February 1st ) that it would only be using
timber cut from plantation forest and not from the natural forests. While APP’s plan is welcomed by environmental
supporters, many are cautious as the company appears to have a long history of
broken promises as well human rights violations. Another company Palm Oil is also under
pressure due to being accused by Greenpeace in 2010 over destruction of peat
lands and more forests. While Indonesia
signed a two year forest moratorium in 2011 breaches appear to still be occurring further increasing skepticism.
The article is flawed in that it does not mention why these
companies in Indonesia have felt the need to cut into off limit natural forests and
destroy forests at a faster rate. We are
left to assume that the owners are simply greedy as the article only states
that they have a history of abuse and breaking contracts. However, what is being shown here reminded me
greatly of what we were shown in the film China Blue. What I feel the article should have brought
up more was the fact that many countries in Asia were the ones buying the paper
products. The reason for this most likely being that the paper from Indonesia was likely
cheaper since the wood
was coming illegally from the forests (the company would be getting more faster) and the article
mentioned that the workers were treated poorly; something we saw done in China
Blue in order to keep the price of jeans down.
I feel the article was too quick to blame the companies and should have
also focused on the countries continuing to buy from these companies as they
are thus indirectly effecting the deforestation happening in this Indonesia.
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