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Paper maker backs off from hotelier lawsuit
By Qin Chuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-02-25 02:40
A report by the forestry authority in Southwest China's Yunnan Province has
made paper and pulp giant Asia Pulp & Paper Co Ltd (APP) withdraw its
lawsuit against a hotel association in East China's Zhejiang Province.
In late November, the company accused the association of infringing upon its
reputation. The claim came after the association called on its member hotels to
resist APP products after its officials read about Greenpeace China's November
16 claim that APP's large-scale paper and pulp project in Yunnan could devastate
the province's natural forests.
The project was agreed upon in 2002 by APP and the Yunnan provincial
government and involves large areas where non-native eucalyptus trees are
planned to be planted and used to produce paper and pulp.
Sources with APP China said yesterday the Yunnan authority's report,
publicized by the Yunnan Daily yesterday, has clarified that the company has not
been damaging forests in the province.
The report says the existing illegal logging is mostly being done by local
farmers. The company has decided it is unnecessary to pursue legal action
against the association, APP sources said.
The Yunnan authority's report was in response to the State Forestry
Administration's request in January, which had asked the authority to look into
the APP project.
Earlier, the administration had sent an investigating team to Yunnan.
According to administration official Zhang Dansong, who was a team member,
the team's investigation found "serious and illegal" damage of forests in the
project areas.
Zhang said the responding report of the Yunnan forestry authority has reached
the administration and "further studies" on it will be done.
Greenpeace China, however, does not agree with the Yunnan authority's report,
while calling the withdrawal of the lawsuit not only a "victory" for the
association, but also a "milestone" for public participation in environmental
protection in China.
The environment organization had once said it is willing to face APP in court
if the company thinks it has been defamed.
Meanwhile, the Yunnan government is still supporting the project.
(China Daily 02/25/2005 page2)
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