Plantations, poverty and power - Critical Information Collective

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71 3. Pulp Inc. Profiles of seven pulp industry proponents There is a range of actors who actively promote the expansion of industrial tree plantations in the global South. These include consulting firms, UN organisations, “aid” agencies, research institutions, industry associations, industry publications and some NGOs. This network of actors, sometimes works together, sometimes in competition, but all tending towards keeping the status quo: an increasingly large scale, wood-based, globalised pulp industry. The pulp and paper industry today looks the way it does to a large extent because it has relied on the advice of northern-based consultants. Thirty years ago, Ken King, then-head of forestry at the FAO, pointed out that developing countries very often could not afford to borrow the huge amounts of money required to build a modern pulp mill. King described the “international clubs of consultants” who travelled the world recommending precisely such large scale developments. This section starts with a profile of the largest and most notorious of these forestry consulting firms: Pöyry. Most industries form associations and alliances to promote their interests and in the case of the pulp and paper industry these organisations can be extremely powerful. In Europe, the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) constantly supports the interests of the European pulp and paper industry, issuing press releases, lobbying at a European level, commissioning research and publishing industry-friendly reports. Aid agencies continue to play a crucial role in promoting the expansion of the pulp and paper industry and its industrial tree plantations in the South. This role is illustrated by looking at the way the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and the European Investment Bank support the industry. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation supports the pulp and paper industry in several ways. Its definition of plantations as “planted forests” allows companies and governments to claim that they are reforesting, when in fact, they are establishing vast areas of industrial tree monocultures. No one would describe a sugar plantation as a “planted grassland”, yet this is precisely what the industry and its supporters do when they describe industrial tree plantations as “planted forests”. FAO recently produced a set of “voluntary guidelines on planted forests”. The guidelines may include some useful statements, but they are voluntary, there is no enforcement mechanism and no penalty for companies which choose to ignore the guidelines entirely. Ultimately the guidelines are a sham which will do nothing to prevent the expansion of industrial tree plantations in the South. On the contrary, the guidelines promote this expansion. This section ends with a look at the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an organisation which is effectively greenwashing the spread of industrial tree plantations in the South. FSC has certified millions of hectares of monoculture tree plantations as “well managed”. By doing so, FSC is undermining local struggles in the South. By remaining members of the FSC, NGO members of FSC also risk undermining these struggles. By promoting paper products manufactured from FSC-certified plantations as “environmentally friendly”, they are also guilty of misleading the public.
72 Pöyry: The economic hit men of the pulp industry Pöyry is the world’s largest consulting firm. Based in Finland, the company was formed in 1958, by Dr. Jaakko Pöyry, as a two-man business to carry out the engineering work on Metsäliito Oy’s pulp mill at Äänekosi in Finland. 349 Since then, Pöyry has worked on projects in more than 100 countries and now has offices in 45 countries, employing 7,300 professionals. 350 The company was owned by Dr. Pöyry until 1985 when he sold half of the company to Henrik Ehrnrooth, who became President and CEO the following year. In 1995, Finnvest Plc, a Finnish “development and investment company” bought the Jaakko Pöyry Group. Under the deal, senior management of Pöyry became shareholders in Finnvest. The Jaakko Pöyry Group was publicly listed in 1997. 351 In January 2008, Pöyry announced that it would be appointing Heikki Malinen as the company’s new President and CEO. Malinen’s previous job was executive vice president of strategy at UPM-Kymmene.352 Malinen started his new job in June 2008, taking over from Erkki Pehu-Lehtonen, the President and CEO for the past 10 years. 353 Pöyry describes itself as a “growth oriented company”. Over the past ten years Pöyry has expanded its sales three-fold. 354 In 1999, 4,000 people were employed at Pöyry. The company had net sales of €259.7 million and profits of €20.6 in 1998. 355 By 2007, the company’s net sales amounted to €718 million with profits of €73.8 million. 356 Today, Pöyry employs 8,000 people. 357 Pöyry is organised in three sectors: energy; forest industry; and infrastructure and environment sectors. 358 The Pöyry Group is the result of a huge number of takeovers and mergers. Some of the recent takeovers include Electrowatt (Switzerland), Interforest (Sweden), Scancontrol (Sweden), Inframan (Finland), GKW Holding (Germany), IGL Consultants (Scotland), ECON Analyse (Norway) and Giprobum Engineering (Russia). In 2006, the Jaakko Pöyry Group rebranded itself as “Pöyry” with a new company logo. All the companies in the group were given names to include the word “Pöyry” and the group got a new slogan: “Competence. Service. Solutions.” 359 Whether it is hydropower in Laos, roads in Austria, a railway in Venezuela, a biomass power station in 349 “Jaakko Pöyry (1924-2006) Founder and Chairman Jaakko Pöyry Group Consulting Engineers Vantaa, Finland”, Paper Industry International Hall of Fame. http://www.paperhall.org/inductees/bios/1995/jaakko_poyry.php “Jaakko Pöyry 40 years in Sweden”, Know-How Wire, Jaakko Pöyry Magazine, June 2002. 350 “Heikki Malinen appointed president and CEO of Pöyry”, Pöyry press release, 22 January 2008. http://www.poyry.com/press/press_1_08.htmlId=hex_1184000.html 351 “Jaakko Pöyry, August 6, 1924 - September 8, 2006, Biography”, Pöyry website. http://www.poyry.com/group/group_7_1.html 352 “Heikki Malinen appointed President and CEO of Pöyry”, Know-How Wire, Pöyry Client Magazine, 1/2008. 353 “Heikki Malinen appointed president and CEO of Pöyry”, Pöyry press release, 22 January 2008. http://www.poyry.com/press/press_1_08.htmlId=hex_1184000.html 354 “Heikki Malinen appointed president and CEO of Pöyry”, Pöyry press release, 22 January 2008. http://www.poyry.com/press/press_1_08.htmlId=hex_1184000.html 355 “Jaakko Pöyry Group At a Glance”, Pöyry website. http://www.poyry.com/txten/glance.html (accessed 18 October 1999). 356 “Pöyry Business Review 2007”, Pöyry Plc. http://www.poyry.com/linked/en/press/Business_review2007.pdf 357 Pöyry’s website: http://www.poyry.com/en/index.html 358 “Heikki Malinen appointed president and CEO of Pöyry”, Pöyry press release, 22 January 2008. http://www.poyry.com/press/press_1_08.htmlId=hex_1184000.html 359 “Jaakko Pöyry Group adopts Pöyry brand”, Pöyry press release, 7 March 2006.
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1 Plantations, poverty and power: E
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3 CONTENTS Introduction 1. Plantati
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5 New investors have emerged recent
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7 1. Plantations do not plant thems
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9 plantations established on grassl
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11 Nations Food and Agriculture Org
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13 Another reason for the move to t
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15 In his book, “Khor Jor Kor, Fo
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17 Between 1991 and 2006, the numbe
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19 are asking for”, notes WWF. 60
Page 22 and 23: 21 consume fewer goods. Less advert
Page 24 and 25: 23 credit crunch, unstable oil pric
Page 26 and 27: 25 Investment in plantations in the
Page 28 and 29: 27 possible price. Subsidies, linke
Page 30 and 31: 29 2. The anatomy of five pulp proj
Page 32 and 33: 31 However, while the Bank confirme
Page 34 and 35: 33 make way for its tree plantation
Page 36 and 37: 35 In April 2004, about 2,000 famil
Page 38 and 39: 37 Sappi, Swaziland: 50 years of in
Page 40 and 41: 39 after an assessment by the Soil
Page 42 and 43: 41 impact of the plantations on wat
Page 44 and 45: 43 Advance Agro, Thailand: Deforest
Page 46 and 47: 45 confiscation and liquidation of
Page 48 and 49: 47 management was facing a bankrupt
Page 50 and 51: 49 Indah Kiat, Asia Pulp and Paper,
Page 52 and 53: 51 company owners want profits to b
Page 54 and 55: 53 • US$4.5 billion owed by APP i
Page 56 and 57: 55 explained that “association wi
Page 58 and 59: 57 Indah Kiat faces a series of lan
Page 60 and 61: 59 logging. While the investigation
Page 62 and 63: 61 experimental areas and not from
Page 64 and 65: 63 Staples and Office Depot in the
Page 66 and 67: 65 “the exhaustive studies have c
Page 68 and 69: 67 CEDHA has also filed complaints
Page 70 and 71: 69 of converting grasslands to indu
Page 74 and 75: 73 Thailand, a power plant for a Ne
Page 76 and 77: 75 Management’s experts the possi
Page 78 and 79: 77 A year after Aracruz’s third p
Page 80 and 81: 79 In January 2003, Pöyry announce
Page 82 and 83: 81 Bank in the early 1990s. Groome
Page 84 and 85: 83 Pöyry’s role in the Baikal Pu
Page 86 and 87: 85 Under carbon financing, Pöyry o
Page 88 and 89: 87 Pöyry is working on second gene
Page 90 and 91: 89 The Confederation of European Pa
Page 92 and 93: 91 CEPI Eurokraft states that “it
Page 94 and 95: 93 sectors need to reduce by 21% co
Page 96 and 97: 95 The ADB’s report notes that th
Page 98 and 99: 97 Nepal In Nepal, the target area
Page 100 and 101: 99 loan for the second plantations
Page 102 and 103: 101 International Finance Corporati
Page 104 and 105: 103 •In December 2000, IFC approv
Page 106 and 107: 105 firm’s activities. After his
Page 108 and 109: 107 safeguards are in practice.
Page 110 and 111: 109 Bank projects are approved by a
Page 112 and 113: 111 •€80 million to Portucel to
Page 114 and 115: 113 The Food and Agriculture Organi
Page 116 and 117: 115 Nevertheless, Poore and Fries n
Page 118 and 119: 117 failure to define industrial tr
Page 120 and 121: 119 FAO’s guidelines recommend th
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121 Rosengren did not reply to my e
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123 Forest Stewardship Council: Mis
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125 body that rubber stamps operati
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127 Criterion 1.6, for example, sta
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129 fast wood plantations have take
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131 Principle 10.8 should prevent t
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133 By April 2004, FSC had, at last
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135 plantations, because it creates
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137 integrated set of common Princi
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139 for clearing areas of Atlantic
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141 Colombia were certified by SGS.
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143 The dissociation became necessa
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145 4. Future planned pulp mills As
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147 Planned pulp projects: 698 Comp
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149 UPM and Sveza Group Vologda Rus
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151 paper industry along ecological
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