Archived press release

Europe's largest forest company faces green protest

25 March 1998

Two motions, proposed by environmental campaigners from Friends of the Earth Finland and other groups, call on UPM-Kymmene to pull out of its deal with the Indonesian company APRIL, and to declare a moratorium on purchasing wood from Finland's few remaining old-growth forests. In Finland, shareholders holding just a single share can get a motion proposed at a company AGM.

The company continues to use wood from the last fragments of old, natural forest in Finland. Over 95% of the forest in Finland has been converted to intensively managed cultivated forest, and the last old forest is vital for many threatened plants and animals,including the Flying Squirrel and the White-backed Woodpecker. In September, the company announced a joint paper-making venture with Indonesian corporation APRIL, that will involve felling natural forest and replacing it with an exotic monoculture plantation. APRIL is also in dispute with local people, who claim rights to the land on which the plantation is being established. Friends of the Earth is calling on UPM-Kymmene to pull out of the deal.

UPM-Kymmene's 1998 AGM is being held at Finlandia House, Mannerheimintie 13 e, FIN-00100 Helsinki at 3.00 pm on Wed 25 March .
Campaigners will be demonstrating outside the AGM and distributing information to shareholders.

Georgina Green of Friends of the Earth said:
“UPM-Kymmene claims to be environmentally responsible, and as the largest forest company in Europe they certainly ought to be. But their use of old-growth wood in Finland and their part in destroying natural forest in Indonesia and violating the rights of local people, show that these claims are hypocrisy. We hope investors will realise the kind of destructive activities their money is supporting. UK companies that use UPM-Kymmene's paper should also realise their responsibility for the damage that the company is doing.”

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust