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1st February 2004 deutsche Version... | indonesian version... Resorts: Environment/Economy International pulp companies destroy native forests for paper production Environmentalists protest at Europe's largest paper trade fair in Frankfurt. The salespeople who converged on Europe's largest paper trade fair PAPERWORLD today received a welcome of a special kind: Environmental activists of ROBIN WOOD, Pro REGENWALD and urgewald greeted them with banners in protest of the destruction of forests in tropical and Nordic zones. Two lively orang-utans and a bear approached the visitors with the demand not to purchase any paper gained by forest exploitation. In front of the trade fair's entrance, the activists had attached a 10-meter-long banner with the words: "Paper destroys forests – Recycled paper doesn't ". Around 40 percent of all commercially logged trees end up in the fibre mix of paper mills. Germany is at the top of the table of paper consumption. At 230 kilograms per person and year, the Germans by far surpass the global average consumption of 50 kilograms. The devastating effects of the industrial nations' wasting of paper are felt by others. The inhabitants of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, for example. Large pulp companies, such as Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL), have driven the former inhabitants off their land, destroyed large areas of native forest and left a trail of destruction. The last remaining orang-utan habitats are also severely threatened by logging on Sumatra. The paper products of APP and APRIL are now being traded at the PAPERWORLD - APP has its own booth and APRIL is presented by Germany's largest paper wholesaler, Papier Union. "We cannot simply watch the last giants of the forest disappear en route to German offices ", Peter Gerhardt from ROBIN WOOD says. "Together with Indonesia's environmental organisations we are asking the German trade to immediately stop dealing in paper gained from illegal logging in Indonesia ." Illegal logging for paper is also common practice in Nordic forests. About one fifth of our pulp is imported from Canada, where the government and the logging industry continue to ignore the Indian peoples' land claims. These claims are founded on national as well as international law. "The land is stolen from the Indian peoples and the forests are irreversibly destroyed – only for us in Germany to be able to continue wasting paper ", Lydia Bartz from urgewald contemplates. The environmentalists recommend recycled paper as an environmentally-friendly alternative for all stationery products. Its production requires less energy and water, conserves forests and fulfils all quality requirements of office machine manufacturers. "Our objective is for paper dealers to offer considerably more products made of recycled paper and to actively inform consumers of its benefits ", Simone Hörner, from Pro REGENWALD says. You can contact the activists at the Paperworld: Peter Gerhardt, ROBIN WOOD, Ph. +49 171 / 835 95 15, tropenwald@robinwood.de Lydia Bartz, urgewald, Ph. +49 160 / 96 76 14 36 Simone Hörner, Pro REGENWALD, Ph. +49 179 / 29 38 952 Ute Bertrand, ROBIN WOOD Press Spokesperson, Ph. +49 40 / 380 892 22, presse@robinwood.de For further information please refer to: http://www.robinwood.de/urwaldpapier       Fotos: Stephan Röhl