Illegal logging

Indonesian rainforest

A sizeable chunk of our paper comes from Asia. In the year to June 2009, we imported 30,000 tonnes of paper and paperboard from China. Another 25,000 tonnes came from Indonesia. Both these countries are heavily implicated in illegal logging and paper mills figure high on the list of suspects.

In Indonesia alone, it's estimated that up to 70 percent of timber is illegally logged. Much of what's being lost is virgin forest, which provides habitat for species such as the Sumatran orangutan – classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered.

For consumers, it's almost impossible to tell whether paper from these countries is from a kosher source.

Take Impact Budget Copy Paper. The packaging says this paper’s made in Indonesia but doesn’t tell you anything about the source of the wood fibre used in the product.

Prostat paper, made in China and on sale at The Warehouse, also gives no information about what it’s made from.

Other products make claims that you can’t put much store by. Campap paper, made in Malaysia, claims to be manufactured from “100% plantation fibre”. But there's no independent certification on the packaging to back this up.