The Walt Disney Company is one of the world’s largest publishers of children’ books and with that means they use a lot of paper. Environmentalists have been working with Disney to help them sever ties with two of Asia’s most controversial pulp and paper manufacturers.

After several years of intense negotiation with the Rainforest Action Network (Ran), a San Francisco-based advocacy group, Disney has agreed to do everything it could to safeguard endangered forests and their ecosystems, which support the sorts of animals celebrated in Disney feature films and other arms of Disney.

“Disney is adding its voice to the growing chorus of companies demonstrating that there’s no need to sacrifice endangered forests in Indonesia or elsewhere for the paper we use every day,” Ran’s executive director Rebecca Tarbotton said in a statement.

Or, as another activist for the organization put it: “The Jungle Book will no longer be destroying the jungle.”

Mixed tropical hardwoods harvested in the Indonesian rainforest Disney will now avoid and they also will seek alternative resources things such as recycled paper and wood harvested in a more environmentally conscious way.

Disney will also sever ties with Asian Pulp and Paper (APP), the third largest paper manufacturer in the world, and with the Asian Pacific Resources International Holdings (April).  Both companies have reputations for exploiting the rainforest.

Disney said in a news release accompanying its new written policy that it would “work with non-governmental organizations to identify and prioritize regions with poor forest management and high rates of deforestation”.

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Tara (409 Posts)

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