Paper Excellence says it's independent from Asia Pulp and Paper. But a Glacier Media investigation with partners from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found a sprawling nexus of ties.
This is the first in a series of four articles resulting from a months-long investigation into Paper Excellence, a B.C.-headquartered pulp and paper company that has quickly grown to control large tracts of Canadian forests and become the largest company of its kind in North America. The stories are part of Deforestation Inc., an investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists involving 140 journalists from 27 countries.
A deeper look into the logistics company shows it is owned by the same indirect shareholders as a flagship unit of Asia Pulp and Paper , the forestry arm of the Sino-Indonesian conglomerate known as the Sinar Mas Group. Since then, a Glacier Media investigation carried out with partners from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — including the CBC, Halifax Examiner, Le Monde and Radio France — has built on that body of evidence, linking the B.C.-headquartered company with the Indonesian business empire. The investigation is part of Deforestation Inc., a journalistic collaboration bringing together 40 media outlets in 27 countries to examine deforestation and greenwashing.
On the ground, Skookumchuck’s latest shipment is part of what former workers and industry insiders describe as a direct pipeline quietly funnelling biomass from Canadian and French forests to APP’s operations in Indonesia and China. That raises fundamental questions over who should control the country's forests.
In the coming years, a 2019 Bloomberg obituary said Widjaja honed his early business acumen hawking coconut and palm oil on the streets of Makassar. A spokesperson for APP said it has since paid all its international creditors “in full.” The company says it now sells its paper products across 150 countries, including Canada. Environmental groups like WWF-Indonesia, Greenpeace and Woods & Wayside International say those operations have come at a cost, including the alleged clearing of over two million hectares of forest — an area roughly the size of Israel — by 2011.
Sinar Mas pushed back. In 2006, as part of its first big global PR campaign, the company took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and the Times of London describing APP’s commitment to “conservation beyond compliance.” Don Roberts, managing director for CIBC World Markets, told Regina Leader Post that APP didn’t have enough fibre to feed its Asian mills.Back in Indonesia, evidence APP was engaged in deforestation was piling up. And the world’s preeminent sustainable forestry certification body was forced to act.
Some of that wood came through government pulpwood contracts; most was guaranteed through long-term agreements with private suppliers, or in land deals bought with government-borrowed money. Meanwhile, APP was trying to redeem its image. It approached FSC International saying it had “undergone fundamental changes.” But allegations the company was in direct conflict with Indigenous communities continued.
In the past, Indonesian wood suppliers have drained and burned swampy forest and peat land to expand plantations. That allows them to plant and harvest fast growing tree species to feed pulp mills. But it also fundamentally changes the landscape. Amid environmental offences, growing denial over foreign links Paper Excellence’s expansion across North America, Brazil and Europe came with growing denials it had any links to Sinar Mas or APP, according to public records and former employees.
Mills close as fibre runs short Many of Paper Excellence's acquisitions during its early expansion included mills bought at bargain prices. In 2021, the same year Paper Excellence bought Domtar and its holdings across Canada and the U.S., the company shut its Mackenzie and Powell River mills, citing “a lack of economical fibre” and economic conditions that were “simply not viable.”
Meanwhile, exports to China have skyrocketed over the past decade, accounting for two-thirds of all B.C.’s pulp exports by 2021. Today, more pulp flows through B.C. than anywhere else in Canada. “It’s a myriad of end uses that are stable and growing,” said Joe Nemeth, project manager for the BC Pulp and Paper Coalition. “This stuff is needed worldwide.”First you need wood — and not just any wood. Most of the pulp used to make toilet and printing paper comes from hardwoods harvested in vast quantities in the tropical forests of Indonesia or Brazil. In those hot and humid climates, trees grow like weeds in short spurts all year long, says Nemeth.
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