Pigna Papers launches its new advertising campaign: Buy pigna paper and help us to destroy the ancient forests! but it's a hoax.

Pigna Papers launches its new advertising campaign: "Buy pigna paper and help us to destroy the ancient forests!"
but it's a hoax.
This morning in the heart of Rome activists hung a huge 200 square-meter banner featuring fake advertising signed by Cartiere Paolo Pigna that said: "Paolo Pigna contributes daily to the tragic destruction of rainforests."  The hoax is based on a new report published by Terra!, which exposes the fact that Cartiere Paolo Pigna purchases paper products from the giant Asian company Asia Pulp and Paper (APP).

"APP is the largest pulp & paper producer in Indonesia and a leading actor of the conversion of peat forests into plantations for pulp production - said Sergio Baffoni of Terra! - By buying APP's products, companies are unknowingly contributing to Indonesian rainforest destruction".

APP is very proud of its PEFC certification; however, since the beginning of its operations in 1984 this group has pulped one million hectares of rainforest in Sumatra, clearing areas rich in carbon, with serious impacts on the global climate. APP recently extended its business to Borneo, and is making plans for the forests in Papua.

As can be read in the information provided by Terra!, APP is going to aggressively expand its business to the Italian and European markets. Italy has become the largest European buyer of Indonesian paper, importing around 77,000 tonnes of paper, cardboard and pulp, worth over 40 million Euros. In 2009 Italian publishers, printers and paper retailers, purchased over 40,000 tons from APP's Indonesian paper mills alone. Terra! has discovered that Cartiere Paolo Pigna also buys products from the APP Group companies.

"What's the point of obtaining the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification if the company then purchases products from a disgraceful company like APP?” - concluded Baffoni. “FSC has refused to certify APP because it is notoriously associated with destructive forestry practices. In this way Pigna is encouraging them to further expand their destructive practices in Indonesia and destroy the remaining forests and the local communities living there".

Many companies worldwide who previously purchased paper from APP, including  Gucci, Versace, Ferragamo have already broken their ties with APP because of its destructive practices. Terra! asks all Italian companies to avoid any business with APP and its subsidiaries until they stop the conversion of natural forests into plantations.

Conversion to pulp plantations is one of the leading causes of the destruction of rainforests and peatlands and it is also a major source of climate changing greenhouse gases, therefore it represents a direct threat to the global climate.
When peatlands are cleared and drained, peat decomposes and up to 300 tons of carbon per hectare is released back into the atmosphere.  Indonesia, in fact, has become the third largest emitter after the United States and China.