JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The main global organization for certifying sustainable wood says a two-year investigation found that one of its members destroyed tropical forests in easternmost Indonesia but has stopped short of expelling the company.
The Forest Stewardship Council said it would impose “improvement” requirements on Korindo, a Korean-Indonesian conglomerate, that an environmental group found had cleared 30,000 hectares of tropical forests for palm oil plantations in Indonesia’s Papua and Maluku regions.
The council’s investigation was triggered by a complaint from the environmental group, Mighty Earth, which for several years has drawn attention to Korindo’s rainforest destruction and its conflicts with local communities.
FSC’s mark is sought by paper producers and other wood users as an endorsement they can use in the global marketplace to promote their products as “green.”
