BG+: How did that policy process evolve to a point where a commitment could be made to end all deforestation?
Greenbury: In June 2012, we launched our roadmap with our responsible procurement policy. That policy already had everything, HCVF (high conservation value forests), HCS (high carbon stock) compliance, the whole nine yards. But something was missing: We did not actually implement it across the supply chain; we just implemented it on a handful of suppliers who we had shares in. It was not good enough for anybody. Our supply chain is our responsibility, it doesn't really matter if we own it or we don't own it. If they are part of our supply chain, then it is our responsibility.
As soon as we launched our roadmap in June we have worked nonstop with TFT to find ways to accelerate the implementation of the policy across the supply chain, especially in Indonesia, in China and elsewhere. That was what we were doing, for six months we did not say much. We provided an update back in September, but at that point there was only two more concessions who were part of the acceleration process and that was just not enough -- we had to do 100 percent. So we had some discussion with Greenpeace and then we made the decision to stop all natural forest conversion in December.
Poynton: We had a meeting in early December to decide what would happen and then there were phone calls and messages to Greenpeace to tell them the decision. And then there was a meeting in Jakarta with Greenpeace Indonesia and there were some more emails and phone calls to clarify what was meant by certain clauses and to get the wording exactly right. We negotiated the agreement that would bring Greenpeace solidly to the table. We then had a videoconference call in the middle of December and agreed we would come together in January to more or less do the peace negotiation.
Out of that peace negotiation -- we were together for about two weeks -- came the final policy, which meant bulldozers off the land by Jan. 31 and then commitments to deal with the other substantive issues around peat, high carbon stock forest and degraded land. We wanted clear language in place around all those things -- it had been implied in our commitments, but we wanted to make sure everything was very clear and that was where the policy emerged.
The timing was perfect as the next quarterly update of the roadmap was due. It was actually due in mid-January, but we postponed it because we wanted to have a situation where APP could go to the launch saying not that the bulldozers would be off at some point in the future, which is what they have done in the past with their policies -- they wanted to be able to say, "the bulldozers are off."
Greenbury: That is a huge difference. In the past we did that and we missed the target. A lot of companies right now still have some kind of target to stop deforestation in 2020 or 2025. That is a difference between them and us. When we launched our decision to stop natural forest conversion, it was already stopped five days before. This is not some kind of target, we've done it. When we launched our policy there was no single chain saw cutting trees in the jungle. It is a very strong commitment.
Poynton: There are some smaller companies in South Africa that operate just with plantations, but there is no company in the pulp and paper industry of the scale of APP that is in this position now. The companies in North America use natural forest fiber. They have got plans to get out of it, but these targets are as far away as 2025. APP are now out of it and are delinked from deforestation. There is still some wood in the bush that needs to be brought in, there is still some stock in the mill yards that needs to be processed. But effectively as of Jan. 31, APP has delinked itself from natural forest clearance.
Next page: Getting civil society involved
