Sumatran Elephants Status Now At Critically Endangered On List Of Threatened Species

The Sumatran elephant has just moved up in status from ‘endangered’ to ‘critically endangered’ on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List of Threatened Species.

Sumatran Elephant. Photo from World Wildlife Fund-Indonesia/Samsul Komar.

“Nearly 70 percent of its habitat and half of its population have been lost in one generation,” said the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), adding that a major contributing factor has been “the clearing of forests for conversion to plantations.”

The elephant is an Asian subspecies called Elephas maximux and is only found in Sumatra, Indonesia. The WWF estimates that there are currently about 2,600 elephants left in the wild, which is about have the population of 30 years ago.

On an even more localized scale, the WWF said that in the province of Riau – located in the center of Sumatra, along the Strait of Malacca – “elephant numbers have declined by a staggering 80 percent in less than 25 year, confining some of the herds to small forest patches.”

The conservation group attributes much of the blame for the habitat destruction on the pulp and paper industries that make their fortunes by clear-cutting forests and replacing them with pulpwood plantations.

These plantations are composed of trees such as aspen, hemlock, pine, or spruce which are used in making pulp for paper.

The WWF is calling on the Indonesian government to “prohibit all forest conversion in elephant habitats until there is a conservation strategy to save the species.”

Also under threat to deforestation are the Sumatran tigers, which currently number about 400 in the wild.

Sumatran Tiger. Photo from World Wildlife Fund /Frédy Mercay.

In an effort to combat increasing habitat destruction, conservation organizations are mounting pressure on the island’s industries to restructure and employ more sustainable practices.

One of the major focuses has been on the harvesting practices of Sinar Mas Group’s Asia Pulp & Paper (SMG/APP), which according to the WWF has cleared more Sumatran forests than any other company.

The WWF estimates that over the past 25 years, SMG/APP, its affiliates, and suppliers have “clear-cut 5 million acres of Sumatran forest wood. Much of that land was once tiger and elephant habitat.”

On Dec. 14, 2011, the environmental coalition Eyes on the Forest released a new report titled “The Truth Behind APP’s Greenwash,” which shows evidence of the SMG/APP’s clear-cutting practices in Sumatran forests, despite its advertising campaigns that it is an environmentally-friendly company.

SMG/APP sells office paper, paper-based packages, and other paper products. They are also expanding globally into tissue products like toilet paper, including brand names such as Paseo, which is also available in many U.S. supermarkets.

The WWF is asking consumers to boycott the company, saying, “Don’t buy Paseo products and ask your grocery store not to carry them until SMG/APP changes its deforestation practices.”

Last year, SMG/APP pledged to source 100 percent of its pulpwood supply from sustainable plantation stock by the end of 2015.

In its report, Eyes on the Forest said it doesn’t believe SMG/APP will be able to meet its 2015 deadline because “the company will have to continue clearing natural forest because it needs to supply not only its existing but also the at least two new pulp mills it has been advertising.”

Eyes on the Forest calculates that “SMG/APP does not have a sustainable plantation wood supply for its existing pulp mills due to historically poor plantation development and too high a reliance on plantations located on peat soil (which according to scientists, collapses after only a few rotations).”

The environmental coalition adds that “77 percent (almost 760,000 hectacres) of all of SMG/APP wood suppliers’ concession areas in Riau alone are on peat. SMG/APP wood suppliers have many more concessions on peat outside of Riau. All of them, not too long into the future will stop supplying wood to the company.”

When SMG/APP wood supplies ran low in past years, Eyes on the Forest obtained a 2009 audit report by the Indonesian State Audit Board that concluded that “SMG/APP wood suppliers cleared natural forest based on pulpwood plantation licenses and annual cutting licenses issued in violation of regulations.”

The Government of Indonesia jailed two government officials (Tengku Azmun Jaafar and Asral Rachman) for corruption when issuing licenses to SMG/APP’s wood suppliers. Other officials are currently under investigation by Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission.

SMG/APP’s often unethical and illegal activities have resulted in a number of environmental organizations deciding to cut affiliations with the company.  Among them, the hightly respected Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has disassociated itself from the company.

The FSC board released a statement saying that it “decided that association with APP would threaten the good will and faith invested in the name Forest Stewardship Council.”

Companies that no longer purchase products from SMG/APP include: Office Depot, Staples, Kraft, Target, Mattel, United Stationers, Hasbro, Nestle, Gucci Group, Ricoh and Fuji Xerox, and the Zhejiang Hotel Association (China).

The WWF Guide to Buying Paper goes into detail about the affects of conventionally-made paper on the environment and suggests whenever possible to use FSC-certified paper products, which includes but is not limited to recycled paper stock.

WWF Paper Tools

• Check Your Paper -  A global database of eco-rated paper products. With this resource, paper producers, merchants and other distributors can rate paper products, while paper buyers can find the most responsible products available on the market.
• Company Environmental Index –The environmental performance of major paper producing companies.

Reader comments and input are always welcomed!