Update from Indonesia: This is what APP’s new sustainability commitments look like

Check out this account by By Bustar Maitar, Head Of Greenpeace’s campaign to save Indonesia’s forests-

Asia Pulp and Paper has spent the last few weeks telling customers around the world that the company’s latest sustainability pledges mean that this time, the changes the company has announced are genuine.  To the untrained eye new pledges to stop forest clearance in limited areas and plans to only source from plantations can sound promising.

But today in Indonesia, as part of Greenpeace’s latest ‘Tigers’ Eyes Tour’ Greenpeace Indonesia and WALHI (Indonesian Environmental Forum) activists, along with Robi, lead singer of famous Balinese grunge band, Navicula, came across the fresh clearing in the middle of a plantation run by PT Asia Tani Persada. Continue reading

Cleaning Up KFC’s Act

Don’t you wish they’d clean up better outside fast food restaurants? Greenpeace went and did some cleaning, although maybe not the kind you’d expect.

Outside the front of a KFC restaurant in Los Angeles, Greenpeace washed the message “Trashing the Rainforest kfc-secretrecipe.com” into the dirty sidewalks.  Using a method called “reverse graffiti”, an art form made popular because it looks like street art but it’s completely non-toxic, Greenpeace power cleaned the sidewalk through a stencil. No paint, no bleach, just pressurized water, carving a message of protest into the layers of well-trodden industrial grime.

Kentucky Fried Chicken, owned by the corporate fast food megalith Yum! Brands, uses paper pulp for their throw away packaging from Asia Pulp and Paper, a company responsible for pulping the last of Indonesia’s ancient forests. One of the most bio-diverse places in the world, the destruction of this forest puts hundreds of species in danger of extinction. Orangutans, Sumatran tigers, and the largest flower in the world are all threatened as their habitat disappears.

Hopefully, just like the clean graffiti in LA, our message to KFC will literally be clean and clear: KFC needs to end its relationship with rainforest destruction.

Demand that KFC clean up their act. Sign this petition today demanding a comprehensive anti-deforestation policy from Yum!

Photo of the Month – May 2012

The May 2012 Photo of the Month by Melvinas Priananda ties Indonesian rainforest destruction to one of the world’s largest purveyors of fast food. KFC is part of Yum! Brands Inc.,  which claims to be the world’s largest restaurant company.

Taken on recently cleared and drained rainforest peatland on the island of Sumatra, the giant fast food bag goes to ground zero in a global campaign to convince KFC to stop using throwaway packaging made by destroying the Indonesian rainforest. Continue reading

KFC’s Chainsaw Colonel visits Indonesian rainforest destruction

Blog post by Rusmadya Maharuddin

When you think of KFC most people think of buckets of fried chicken. So what does KFC have to do with Indonesia and why did Greenpeace Indonesia take action against the company on Wednesday?

KFC Chainsaw Colonel visits Indonesian rainforests meeting tigersWell, KFC is one of the most popular fast food chains in the country, with more than 400 stores, and if KFC gets its way, the company will have more than 1,000 stores by 2015. That’s a lot of potential rainforest destruction.

In fact, there are now more KFC stores in Indonesia than there are Sumatran tigers in the wild, and tragically, KFC sourcing practices are making the prospects for Indonesia’s one remaining tiger species even worse. Continue reading

KFC Executives Have Their Heads in a Bucket

KFC Napkins Tied to Rainforest Destruction

Earlier today we released a report exposing KFC for driving rainforest destruction and pushing tigers toward extinction.

Sadly, KFC executives have responded by putting a big bucket of denial on their heads.
The company first said that 60% of their packaging in the US comes from “sustainable” sources.  Then, they said it was 80%.  Hmmm.  Then, they started to claim that they don’t buy from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) in the UK or US.

There are so many things wrong with this statements, we’re going to have to take them one by one. Continue reading

KFC’s Secret Recipe: Rainforest Destruction

No matter what you think about fast-food, you’ll no doubt agree that rainforests shouldn’t be trashed to make packaging destined for the trash. Yet that’s exactly what KFC and its giant parent company YUM! Brands are doing.

Action at Yum! Brands Inc. headquarters in Louisville, KentuckyThe original Colonel Sanders couldn’t have imagined the company he founded in 1930 would be trashing rainforests half a world away from where he started it in Kentucky, USA. Continue reading

Greenpeace volunteers send a message to Barnes & Noble in Torrance, CA

Guest post by Wendell Covalt.

greenpeace volunteers reach out to barnes and noble customers about the companies use of paper made by rainforest destroyer APP

My name is Wendell Covalt and I’m a new Greenpeace volunteer. I’m a retired part owner of a computer software company where I did sales and marketing. I’ve supported Greenpeace for many years, and this weekend I organized an event at a local Barnes & Noble to get the company to stop purchasing paper from notorious forest destroyer Asia Pulp & Paper.

Continue reading

Orange County activists greet Barnes & Noble customers with flowers and the awful truth behind those glossy bargain books

Barnes and Noble Booksellers is one of the largest book retailers in the United States. It is unfortunate that their publishing house along with other publishers are buying from Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a company that is decimating the Paradise Rainforest in Indonesia and illegally destroying Ramin trees. APP’s paper pulp is ending up in books sold at Barnes and Noble stores all over the country. Learn more. Continue reading

What will Barnes & Noble do about their ties to illegal logging? (the sequel)

The next chapter of Barnes & Noble’s ties to an illegal logging scandal in Indonesia continues.  As the wave of enlightened activists sweeps across the country, people are taking to the streets…and the bookshelves of Barnes & Nobles nationwide.

Barnes & Noble, put the “noble” back in your name and cut ties with deforestation

This past weekend in San Jose, Chicago, Emeryville California and Denver people with tiger face-paint occupied storefronts of Barnes & Noble to educate customers and get them involved in the campaign.  In the wake of the recent Ramin Report released in late February, Barnes & Noble is the last US company identified that has failed to cut ties with Asia Pulp and Paper.

Continue reading

Barnes and Noble, with its head in a book, does nothing about its ties to illegal rainforest destruction

After the recent scandal tying several US companies to evidence of illegal logging in Indonesia many companies are distancing themselves from those bad habits.

Danone, the makers of Dannon yogurt, are not only part of a healthy breakfast- they are also creating a zero deforestation policy for their company. With plans to phase out supplies of paper and packaging products from Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), Danone is taking the right steps to make a stand against illegal logging and destructive in Indonesia. Continue reading