Turning The Page on Rainforest Destruction

Created May 23, 2010; last updated May 24, 2010

From stopping littering to addressing climate change, stories found in children’s books often help instill the first concepts of environmental stewardship. Ironically, a growing number of these books are made from paper linked to the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests. Independent laboratory testing commissioned by Rainforest Action Network found wood fiber linked to the clearing and conversion of Indonesia’s rainforests in the paper of some of America’s favorite children’s books.

Five out of the top ten American children’s book publishers have public environmental and paper procurement policies that pledge to reduce the companies’ impact on the climate, protect endangered forests, increase the use of recycled and FSC certified fiber and maximize resource efficiency. However, despite these important policy commitments, wood fiber from Indonesia is ending up in children’s books.

Unchecked by government or industry, pulp and paper companies are razing natural rainforests on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra and replacing them with acacia pulp wood plantations. This expansion of the pulp sector directly threatens endangered species like tigers, elephants and orangutans with extinction in Sumatra. It is causing ongoing conflicts with local communities whose lands, livelihoods and rights are being usurped, and it is causing massive greenhouse gas emissions from rainforest loss and drainage of carbon-rich peatlands. Driven by global demand for pulp and paper that favors “low-cost” producers, the enormous emissions from the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands have vaulted the country into the rank of the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the U.S. Moreover, at least half of the logging in Indonesia takes place illegally.1 These factors combine to make Indonesia among the most risky of supplier nations.

With the rapid growth of book printing and manufacturing being outsourced to China, the U.S. book industry has become increasingly vulnerable to controversial paper sources entering its supply chain. China is the top importer of Indonesian pulp and paper and much of the Chinese paper industry is linked to or controlled by highly controversial Indonesian pulp and paper suppliers, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL), which together account for 80 percent of Indonesia’s production.2 From 2000-2008, Chinese sales of children’s picture books to the U.S. ballooned by more than 290 percent, averaging an increase of more than 35 percent per year.

In order to investigate the prevalence of controversial wood sources likely coming from Indonesia’s rainforests in the U.S. children’s book market, Rainforest Action Network had 30 children’s books that were manufactured in China tested by an independent laboratory to ascertain whether they contained fiber from acacia plantations or rainforests. The sample included three randomly selected color children’s books printed on glossy or coated paper in China from each of the top ten U.S. children’s publishers. Through our research Rainforest Action Network found that:

• Sixty percent of children’s books tested contained paper with controversial wood fiber linked to Indonesian rainforest destruction.
• Nine of the ten leading publishers of children’s books are selling books manufactured on paper that threatens Indonesia’s rainforests.
• Publishers with paper policies and climate commitments had a similar percentage of books containing controversial fiber to publishers without policies.
• Industry paper policies and best practices are currently lacking the capacity or failing to screen out fiber that is sourced from endangered forests or from controversial sources and suppliers.

Although our sample was relatively small and selected at random, it is notable that more than half of the books and nine of 10 book publishers had fiber linked to Indonesian rainforest destruction in their books. It is highly likely indicative of a larger trend in the publishing industry. Without urgent action to remedy these problems, fiber linked to Indonesian rainforest destruction will continue to find its way into American children’s books.