Mar 30, 2005. /Lesprom Network/. Greenpeace and 12 Chinese university environmental groups have launched a boycott against 20 consumer products of Asia Pulp & Paper Co., a major Asian pulp and paper maker, to protest the firm's role in a China forestry project, group members said. Greenpeace persuaded some customers in 12 supermarkets in six Chinese cities Sunday to stop buying products such as Qingfeng and Zhenzhen tissue paper and Blue Snail notebook paper, Beijing-based Greenpeace campaign assistant Bai Yunwen said late Monday. About 40 supermarket customers agreed to switch brands, Bai said. Representatives of 12 student environmental clubs brought together by Greenpeace said at a meeting in Beijing on Monday they would stop buying Asia Pulp & Paper products from stores on or around campus. They added they would also tell other students and people off campus to switch brands. ''Most students know,'' said Beijing Science and Technology University freshman Zhang Rui, a member of his school's environmental protection club. ''It's not just about students. You've got to tell other people, like your family.'' Greenpeace and the campus environmental groups, which have 40 to 120 members each, dispute the Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper's forestry projects in Yunnan Province in southwest China. Greenpeace researchers said in November, after checking three project sites totaling thousands of hectares, that the local government had illegally let the company log native forests, then plant eucalyptus trees as replacements. Eucalyptus integration uses too much water while not giving native species, especially small animals, adequate habitat, Greenpeace charges. The researchers also cited fire hazards and greater difficulty for nearby people to live off the land. ''I think the situation is really bad now, and it's not just the APP (Asian Pulp & Paper) matter,'' Yunnan Province photographer and environmental activist Xi Zhinong told the students Monday. ''I really hope students, especially students in Yunnan, will do something.'' The company said in December it would ask an internationally recognized third party to investigate the project areas and comment on the allegations. A company spokeswoman said Tuesday she had no time to talk about the boycott. Asian Pulp & Paper sells products in 65 countries, ranking No. 1 in Asia outside Japan, according to the company website. It sells office paper, tissue paper and carbonless paper as well as other office products. Beijing Science and Technology University sophomore Liu Jianping said the boycott would be difficult to carry out. He said consumer habits are hard to change and targeted brands are hard to recognize. He said the information the students have received on the Yunnan forestry project is ''partial.'' ''We can just promote (the boycott), and what happens later is another matter,'' Liu said.