Plantations, poverty and power - Critical Information Collective

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Nevertheless, pulp and paper companies rely on Pöyry’s knowledge of paper markets for information on
their business decisions. “As we focus on our core business we need Pöyry’s expertise in engineering and
consultancy all the more,” notes Einar Agnaess of Norske Skog. “If we’re thinking about expanding in
India, for example, they know what’s happening in the market. We simply don’t.” 367
Technology “to help the environment”
Dr. Jaakko Pöyry’s public statements provide a good insight into Pöyry’s role in promoting the pulp and
paper industry. For example, at the Financial Times World Pulp and Paper Conference in 1989, Dr. Pöyry
said: “Re-establishing the image of pulp and paper as environmentally acceptable products is a
necessity.” His solution did not involve considerations about the way the pulp and paper industry is
structured, or an attempt to address the massive amounts of wood that the industry needs each year.
Instead, his solution was the use of technology, “to help the environment”. 368 Dr. Pöyry’s firm would be
happy to provide further advice on the technology. For a fee, of course.
The Phoenix Pulp and Paper Company’s misnamed “Project Green” in the north-east of Thailand
provides one example of the sort of technology that Pöyry promotes, supposedly to “help the
environment”. Project Green was designed to address the pollution from the Phoenix pulp mill, which
was facing increasing criticism from local people and the Department of Industrial Works over its
pollution of the Phong River. Instead of pouring the effluent into the river, Pöyry came up with “Project
Green”, a scheme to use the water to irrigate eucalyptus plantations. Under “Project Green”, yellowbrown
frothy water from the pulp mill is piped into irrigation channels in nearby eucalyptus plantations.
From there it spreads into farmers’ adjoining fields, ruining the rice crop. When it rains heavily, the water
overflows into the Phong River. The effluent seeps into the ground water. Local people complain that the
water is now salty and undrinkable. When I visited the pulp mill in 1998, villagers complained that their
rice harvest in fields near to Project Green had failed. 369
While Pöyry sometimes acts as consultant on paper mills using recycled paper, its main area of interest is
in promoting large scale pulp mills and industrial tree plantations. Pöyry lobbies behind the scenes and in
public for the continued expansion of the industry. In 1995, Pöyry’s Per Jerkeman told the Financial
Times that “public opinion about the desirability of recycling as much paper as possible should be
changed. Utilisation of recycled fibres should be high, ‘but not so high that reforestation is diminished or
prevented and paper quality impaired’.” 370
Pöyry explains that the company’s technical expertise can be applied anywhere in the world, regardless of
history, politics or culture:
“[A]ny paper machine, in spite of sophisticated software control systems, is operating according to the
same papermaking principles around the world. Papermaking is a universal art. This gives JP Operations
367 Satu Jussila (2008) “Cementing partnerships”, Know-How Wire, Pöyry Client Magazine, 2/2008.
368 Maggie Urry (1989) “Eastern European market beckons. Political changes open opportunities for pulp and paper
makers”, Financial Times, 14 December 1989.
369 Chris Lang (1998) “Phoenix pulp mill: The polluter pays” Watershed, Vol. 4 No. 2, November 1998 – February
1999, page 54.
370 Deborah Hargreaves (1995) “Forestry status boost forecast”, Financial Times, 26 January 1995.