Canadian forestry giant Paper Excellence won’t have its sustainability certification revoked by the world’s premier forestry credentialing body after an examination of the company’s ties to an Indonesian resource conglomerate, but environmental NGOs and legal experts say the assessment appears to be rife with conflicts. The international Forest Stewardship Council conducted a “corporate group review” of allegations that Paper Excellence has deep operational and ownership ties to Indonesian conglomerate Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), which has a record of rainforest destruction and lost its FSC designation in 2007. …The FSC hired one of Paper Excellence’s go-to law firms, McMillan LLP, to conduct the review. …Most of Paper Excellence’s operations have some kind of FSC certification. It stood to lose that certification if it was deemed a part of the APP business empire. …But the FSC announced Friday morning that its review confirmed there is “no corporate control” between Paper Excellence and APP.
Related coverage in Burnaby Now, by Stefan Labbé: Critics slam Paper Excellence review that found no APP links