Greenpeace accused Indonesian paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper yesterday of threatening local forests on Hainan Island.

The environmental organization said its investigations in March and April showed that a huge gap in the supply of Hainan Jinhai Pulp & Paper Co Ltd, a subsidiary of APP that started production on March 28, has led to the logging of many natural forests.

Greenpeace made the announcement at a discussion on the development of plantations and paper and pulp making in China, held yesterday in Beijing.

APP representatives denied the allegation, saying the company seeks sustainable development in China and will not destroy China's natural forests.

Zhong Yu, director of the forestry protection division at Greenpeace China, said the Jinhai company, which has an annual capacity of 1 million tons of pulp, needs 2 million mu (133,000 hectares) of forest for its raw material.

But APP has so far planted only 960,000 mu (64,000 hectares) on the island, and only 100,000 mu (6,000 hectares) is available for logging, she said.

Zhong also said many ecotypic trees had been cut down and replaced with eucalyptus trees, APP's major raw material.

Xie Yan, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said to plant eucalyptus trees in large areas could damage local ecosystems.

Deputy general manager of the APP forestry department Ke Xiangsen said the company could get its wood from all over the country.

Ke said APP's production technique is designed to deal with one kind of tree. Given that the company's major raw material is eucalyptus, local natural forests could not be affected since the Hainan branch company would not use any of natural forests in the province.

"As a big company, we abide by China's laws and will not destroy natural forests in China," he said.

Since November 16, when Greenpeace criticized an APP project in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, the paper giant's actions in China have been often questioned by media reports.

The Yunnan project was agreed in 2002 by APP and the provincial government and involves large areas where non-native eucalyptus trees are to be planted and used to produce paper and pulp.

In mid-March, the Beijing News reported that an APP project in Hainan Province was involved in a mass logging of roadside trees across the island province.

In both cases, provincial governments support the projects, with a hope they can boost local economy.

(China Daily May 26, 2005)