GREENPEACE FORCES PULP MILL'S SHUTDOWN IN RIAU

Jakarta, Nov. 25 (ANTARA) - Greenpeace activists forced a pulp mill owned by Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) in Kampar Peninsula, Riau Islands Province, to shut down on Wednesday.

"With the critical UN Copenhagen Climate Summit just 12 days away, our activists took direct action today - blocking one of the world's largest pulp mills, owned by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), in the heart of Indonesia's rainforests," Greenpeace Southeast Asia said on its official website.
Twelve activists locked down cranes at the giant paper plant's port and displayed banners that read: "Forest Destruction: You can stop this", urging world leaders to provide strong leadership to avert climate chaos and allocate the funds needed to end tropical deforestation as part of a fair, ambitious and legally
binding climate deal at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December.

APP's parent company, Sinar Mas, is a leading driver of global climate change due to its widespread role in forest destruction, the noted environmental NGO said.

The plant is fed with wood from one of the world's largest peatland forests, on the Kampar Peninsula in Sumatra, which stores up to 2 gigatonnes of carbon.

"Deforestation is one of the roots of the climate crisis. We are shutting down this plant at the frontline of forest destruction to tell heads of state that they can - and must - pull us back from the brink of catastrophic climate change," according to Greenpeace.

"Our action comes as President Barack Obama is attempting to relegate the Copenhagen climate deal to nothing but a political statement and to postpone critical decisions on a legally binding agreement," the NGO said.

According to Greenpeace, President Obama and other world leaders cannot be allowed to sabotage a strong outcome in Copenhagen because of their lack of political will. Significant funds are urgently needed to end tropical deforestation in Indonesia and around the world. This must be a central part of any climate agreement.

Paper giant APP sells its products on the global market in China, the United States, Europe and Australia and supplies many international brands and distributors with paper products including Vogue, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Marc Jacobs.

APP, alongside their main competitor APRIL, are both responsible for destroying rainforests and their carbon-rich peat soil across Indonesia, including the threatened Kampar Peninsula of Sumatra - the location of a Climate Defenders Camp. Containing 2 billion tonnes of carbon, the Peninsula is one of the planet's largest natural carbon stores and a key defence against global climate change.

"We have been working with local communities over the past month to highlight the central role that deforestation plays in driving global climate change. Our Climate Defenders took action in the area against APRIL on November 12. Since then, both the camp and the local communities have been under sustained intimidation by the authorities including threats, arrests and deportations. But last week, the Indonesian government ordered a halt to APRIL's forest cutting operations pending a review of the company's permits," it said.

Indonesia is the world's third largest climate polluter after China and the US, mainly as a result of the ongoing destruction of its forests and their peat soils. Globally, a million hectares of forests are destroyed every month.

That's an area the size of a football pitch every two seconds -- emitting so much CO2 that deforestation is one of
the main causes of climate change, responsible for about a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions.