Teguh Ganda Wijaya, chairman of Asia Pulp and Paper Group (APP), Jakarta, Indonesia, this week joined a number of companies, governments, and NGOs to sign the New York Declaration on Forests at an event at the UN Climate Summit 2014. The declaration is an unprecedented international, multi-sector commitment to safeguard the world’s forests and to help tackle climate change.

 

All signatories of the Declaration have committed to a vision of slowing, halting, and reversing global forest loss, while simultaneously contributing to economic growth, poverty alleviation, rule of law, food security, climate resilience, and biodiversity conservation.

The declaration, formalized at an event hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, highlights that reducing emissions from deforestation and increasing forest restoration are key to tackling climate change. Partners are called on to work together to:

• At least halve the rate of loss of natural forests globally by 2020 and strive to end natural forest loss by 2030
• Restore 150 million hectares of degraded landscapes and forestlands by 2020 and significantly increase the rate of global restoration thereafter, which would restore at least an additional 200 million hectares by 2030
• The full list of commitments have the collective target of achieving a reduction in emissions by 4.5 to 8.8 billion tons per year by 2030.

"United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has done the planet and some of its most critical ecosystems a great service in convening this groundbreaking meeting of governments, global business leaders, and NGOs," said Teguh Ganda Wijaya, chairman of APP. "Business can take the lead in delivering these commitments, but we must work closely with all stakeholders, including governments and NGOs to truly tackle deforestation and climate change. One of the most effective ways to do this is by conserving forest, planting trees, and protecting the natural forest that surrounds.

 

"We at APP also believe that forest-based products can help in this regard because they retain carbon, are recyclable and, when sourced from responsibly managed plantations, are often more sustainable than the alternatives," Wijaya added. 

APP announced its Forest Conservation Policy and zero deforestation commitment in February 2013 and throughout the last 18 months reports that it has been working successfully to implement this policy. Earlier this year, the company made a further commitment to support the protection and restoration of one million hectares of tropical rainforest landscapes in Indonesia.