Kroger, America’s largest grocery chain, stops carrying Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) products due to deforestation concerns

The move comes after a Greenpeace campaign targeting Paseo, a toilet paper brand owned by APP and sold by Kroger in the USA. APP has been targeted by environmental groups for its ongoing destruction of rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia to produce paper products.

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1222-kroger_app.html

APP has missed three deadlines — 2004, 2007, and 2009 — for phasing out logging of natural forests.

National Geographic reporter, Scott Wallace, was interviewed about his new book The Unconquered, where he follows Brazilian explorer and social activist Sydney Possuelo as he tracks one of the last uncontacted indigenous people on the planet, the flecheiros or Arrow People.

Q: What is at risk if the uncontacted/isolated peoples of the Amazon are not protected?

A: If the isolated tribes of the Amazon are not protected, they will disappear, just as surely as the hunting cultures and the buffalo vanished from the High Plains of North America. The frontier of modern society is advancing everywhere across the planet where resources have yet to be tapped.

The global economy’s insatiable appetite for gold, oil, land, timber-you name it-is threatening the Earth’s last bastions of pristine wilderness, and in the case of the deep Amazon, the very existence of fragile, vulnerable cultures. These cultures represent a tenuous link with our past. They deserve our respect and our protection.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20111209/FEAT05/112090311/Author-explores-world-Amazon-s-Arrow-People?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CHome%7Cs

Rainforest robot named “Chico Mendes” (in honor of slain Brazilian environmentalist) helps protect rainforests by patrolling the ecosystem and monitoring it. Why have I not heard of this before? Only thing that made me wonder is the fact that it’s backed by Brazilian energy firm Petrobras. So I dug deeper and found that the robot was actually designed to inspect the gas pipeline for leaks, etc. Well, I guess if it’s doing both things, that’s not bad. After all, a gas leak in the amazon would not be a good thing. Whether a gas pipeline should be running through the Amazon in the first place is an altogether different question

Toymaker Hasbro cuts deforestation from its supply chain: the second largest American toy company, today announced a new packaging policy that excludes the use of fiber produced via destruction of rainforests.

Hasbro says is will not use any virgin fiber that contains Mixed Tropical Hardwood (MTH), which typically indicates the fiber has been derived from clearing of natural rainforests. Mattel took a similar decision last month. It seems that companies such as LEGO and DISNEY need to follow suit.

Interesting related video on the future of sustainable packaging — paper, board and plastics industry.

Reducing deforestation in the Amazon is Brazil’s largest contribution to tackling climate change.

Palm oil giant, Golden Agri-Resources, vows to spare most valuable Indonesian rainforest However, the agreement announced on Wednesday will still leave GAR free to exploit other areas of forest, and land that is judged to be of lower conservation value. Greenpeace, which has strongly criticised GAR in the past for its alleged destructive activities, is expected to keep a close watch on the company to ensure it lives up to its promises.