Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com, August 10, 2008-- Last week Woolworths announced it was dropping its contract with Asian Pulp and Paper (APP). Woolworths had come under considerable fire for carrying APP, which has a notorious record of environmental degradation on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Previously APP has lost contracts with several other large companies including Office Depot, Wal-Mart, and Staples. APP has also fallen foul of several environmental groups like the World Wildlife Fund, the Rainforest Alliance, and the Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies sustainable wood products.

PEKANBARU (EoF News)-- A concerted campaign is conducted to wake up Australia’s largest retailer Woolworths Ltd for not sourcing paper products of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), “the least sustainable fiber manufacturer in Asia and one of the worst in the world.”

BWI website - 30 May 2008 -- In August 2007, the Australian union CFMEU's Pulp and Paper Workers' Branch contacted Woolworths, a major Australian retailer, demanding that the company cease buying tissue and paper products from Asia Pulp & Paper, APP, a leading paper manufacturer based in Indonesia.

Woolworths, Australia's biggest supermarket chain, has been caught telling shoppers that two of its home brand products are environmentally sustainable, when the company has never independently checked the validity of those claims. Packaging on the company's Select brand of toilet paper and tissues states the products come from an environmentally managed company, that is certified as being environmentally, socially and economically responsible. But ABC Radio's PM program has found at least two reports, plus an independent audit of the Indonesian company that supplies the pulp to Woolworths, that completely discredit that claim. Woolworths has now admitted it is still awaiting proper accreditation of its suppliers' operations in Indonesia from the industry's peak independent assessment body. Australia's biggest supermarket chain sources those products from APP, short for Asia Pulp and Paper, the world's largest pulp producer. A report by Indonesia's Centre for International Forestry Research last year found that APP relies on the clearing of natural forests in Sumatra for 60 to 70 per cent of its wood supply. Nazir Foead is the director for governance community and corporate engagement at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Indonesia. "I think it's fair for us to say that Indonesian logging practices is still far from sustainable," he said.