Greenpeace International has launched a fresh campaign targeting Mattel’s famous doll Barbie, claiming the toy’s packaging is driving deforestation in Indonesia.
Activists from the environmental non-profit group staged a protest Wednesday in Los Angeles at Mattel’s corporate headquarters. Dressed as the Barbie doll’s boyfriend Ken, campaigners climbed the building with a sign that read: “Barbie: it’s over. I don’t date girls that are into deforestation”.
Greenpeace’s newest global campaign coincided with the release of results from an internal investigation which discovered that packaging materials from Barbie dolls and other toys by different manufacturers were sourced from Indonesian firm Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) which the NGO has accused as causing widespread deforestation in Indonesia.
APP has since hit back, saying Greenpeace’s allegations are unsubstantiated.
The NGO’s investigation, which used forensic testing, as well as timber certificates, mapping data, employee interviews and other methods, targeted toys made in China and Indonesia. The organisation traced packaging suppliers and tested materials for traces of tropical timber. It found that product packaging from Mattel and other toy makers such as Disney, Hasbro and LEGO, was found to contain pulp produced by APP.
APP is a subsidiary of Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas. Both companies were the subject of a July 2010 report from Greenpeace entitled How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet.
“Mattel, which makes Barbie, must stop wrapping the world’s most famous toy in rainforest destruction. Barbie must stop buying packaging from APP, a notorious rainforest destroyer which has been exposed many times for wrecking Indonesia’s rainforests to make throw-away packaging,” said Greenpeace’s Bustar Maitar in a statement.
Mr Maitar, who is head of the campaign on Indonesian forests, accused APP of treating Indonesia as a vast disposable asset with no concern for forest communities, and urged toymakers to remove the company from their supply chains. “Mattel, and other toy companies like Disney, have a responsibility to support clean, low-carbon development. They should drop APP right now and instead support responsible Indonesian producers,” he said.
However, APP’s managing director of sustainability Aida Greenbury said in a statement, “Despite Greenpeace’s unsubstantiated allegations, the facts are that our packaging materials contain more than 95 per cent of recycled paper sourced from around the world. Less than two per cent of the pulp in those carton boxes comes from legal and sustainable Indonesia pulpwood plantations. And the remainder is from PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) certified forests.”
Ms Greenbury said APP is one of the few companies in Southeast Asia that has been working hard to promote the production of this type of recycled carton box packaging. “We are happy to share the scientific analysis of our packaging materials with anyone who wants to review it,” she added.
Mattel responded Wednesday with a statement on its website criticising Greenpeace for its tactics, but also promising to act on the issue: “Mattel does not contract directly with Sinar Mas/APP…We have directed our packaging suppliers to stop sourcing pulp from Sinar Mas/APP as we investigate the deforestation allegations.”
The statement also noted that Mattel asked their packaging suppliers to clarify how they are addressing sustainability in their own supply chains.
Greenpeace claims that APP has illegally cleared both peat forest and tiger habitat, and has plans to clear more.
Previous Greenpeace campaigns have been effective in getting multinationals such as Kraft, Nestlé, Unilever, Carrefour, Tesco, LeClerc, Corporate Express and Adidas to drop suppliers linked to unsustainable practices.
The rapid deforestation of Indonesia’s forests, and particularly its carbon-rich peat forests, has placed Indonesia among the top emitter’s of greenhouse gases. An estimated 80 per cent of Indonesia’s emissions are from deforestation and the conversion of peatlands. To counteract the emissions and the loss of over one million hectares of forest each year, the Indonesian government has issued a moratorium on clearing primary rainforest and peatlands.
But environmentalists have said the moratorium, which covers about 88 million hectares of forest but exempts existing logging concessions, will fail to protect 45 million hectares of natural forest and peatlands. That land includes habitat for endangered orangutans and Sumatran tigers.
In Wednesday’s statement, Greenpeace demanded a review of existing concessions to establish whether they were granted in compliance with Indonesian law. Corruption is a common problem in Indonesia.
“Greenpeace is…calling on the government of Indonesia to institute stronger measures to protect our last remaining natural forests and peatlands —including the ones in existing concessions,” said a Greenpeace campaigner.
