Plantations, poverty and power - Critical Information Collective

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CEPI Eurokraft states that “it is clear that the distribution itself gives the highest environmental impact
for all of the studied systems”.464 But rather than looking at possible ways of reducing the impacts of
distributing goods, CEPI Eurokraft distorts the findings of the report it commissioned and promotes the
use of paper sacks instead of the semi-bulk system using large reusable plastic sacks.
In 2001, CEPI Eurokraft co-sponsored a school project in the UK, which included information on
“growing trees for paper making”, “making paper sacks from paper” and “recycling paper waste by
composting”. The project included teacher’s materials, wall posters for the classroom, posters for children
to take home, stickers, recycled paper pots, kraft paper to make sacks, compost and tree seeds.465
It sounds great. Children even get to plant tree seeds in the compost “hence completing the cycle” as
CEPI Eurokraft puts it. But, CEPI Eurokraft’s job is to promote the industry, not to educate. There is no
mention in its material for schools of the impacts of the pulp and paper industry’s industrial tree
plantations on biodiversity or local people. Neither is there any mention of the vast areas of land that
European companies are taking over in the global South to establish their industrial tree plantations.
“PrintSells” is CEPIFINE’s advertising campaign promoting “the use of paper as an extremely efficient
marketing tool”.466 The campaign urges companies to “Get real with your corporate communication and
see the benefits immediately.” PrintSells celebrates paper consumption, pointing out, for example, that
between 1954 and 2006, the number of catalogues that IKEA prints each year has increased from 500,000
to 192 million467 and that more than 2,860 new magazine titles were launched in 2006.468 The
PrintSells campaign promotes just about any use of paper: books, calendars, annual reports, brochures,
catalogues, magazines, advertising and junk mail.
CEPI is running another paper promotion campaign titled “paperonline”, with the slogan “ideas start with
paper”. The website tells us that “Paper is all around us and the demand for paper is increasing,” and
“paper is a part of everyday life”.469 On paper and climate change, the website notes that under the
Kyoto Protocol, the EU committed itself to “a reduction of minus [sic] 8%”, compared to 1990 levels by
2012. “However,” CEPI continues, “the growth in greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, especially from
the transport sector, suggests that the Kyoto targets are much more ambitious than was envisaged in
1997.”470 The implication that the Kyoto targets are even remotely “ambitious” flies in the face of the
scientific evidence about climate change which demands reductions of more than 90 per cent. 471
Once a year, CEPI organises the “European Paper Week”, which it boasts is the “European paper and
464 “LCA of Distribution in Paper Sacks. Executive Summary”, Eurosac and CEPI Eurokraft, 2000, page 4.
465 “ETAPS School Pack”, CEPI Eurokraft website. http://www.cepi-eurokraft.org/Etaps.htm
466 CEPIFINE’s website: http://www.cepifine.org/html/index_ns.htm
467 “Instore communication, brochures and catalogues”, PrintSells brochure.
468 “Magazines”, PrintSells brochure.
469 CEPI’s paperonline website: http://www.paperonline.org/
470 “Environmental issues”, CEPI’s paperonline website.
http://www.paperonline.org/enviro/level3/issues/issues_frame.html
471 To prevent global warming exceeding 2°C, the world needs to cut emissions to about 15% of the volume in 2000,
according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This would require cuts of 94.4% in the UK and 97.7% in
the US. For an explanation of the figures, see George Monbiot (2007) “What is Progress”, Guardian, 4 December 2007.
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/12/04/what-is-progress/