WWF to launch its pulp and paper program on the Chinese market

Dec 01, 2009. /Lesprom Network/. In the framework of the global initiative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) called Market Transformation a pulp and paper strategy is developed part of which would be in active cooperation with participants of the Chinese market of pulp and paper products, as WWF Russia informed Lesprom Network. There are two major directions. First, promotion of the idea of responsible procurement and effective use of paper among large consumers. Second, working jointly with major pulp and paper producers in China in order to secure that their raw timber originates from sustainably managed forests and has FSC certificates. The fund also plans to track Chinese investments in the forest sector of such countries as Russia, Indonesia or Chile in order to secure that responsible forest enterprises get these investments, as said in the release. China became the largest importer of pulp and paper products from secondary raw materials in the world, WWF reports. Paper consumption in China is comparatively low, around 26 kilograms per annum per capita (NB: in the USA and EU, this indicator reaches 250 kg). However, it is predicted that this figure will be growing in the nearest future. Consequences of increased demand for paper in China may become dangerous for WWF’s top priority ecoregions. ‘This program will surely influence Russia, as China is the largest buyer of Russian pulp: over 60% of export pulp is sold to China’, Aleksandr Voropaev, coordinator of the Association of Environmentally Responsible Forest Enterprises (GFTN Russia), comments. ‘Growth of environmental responsibility of Chinese paper producers will increase demand for FSC-certified pulp and foster certification of Russian enterprises. Apart from that, there is a project of construction of pulp and paper mill in Zabaikalsk region with China’s financial participation, and this region is in the top priority list for WWF, so we do hope that this mill will be originally built with respect to all ecological requirements and will use only FSC-certified timber as raw material’.