Itochu is one of Japan's largest integrated trading and investment companies. Its annual revenue in 2004 was Yen 10 trillion (US$90 billion). Together with its numerous subsidiaries affiliates and investments, Itochu's business interests are world-wide and include most market sectors - particularly those of the wood-based products industry.
Prior to changing its name from C Itoh, Itochu had logging interests in the Philippines when logging there was at its height, established logging and plywood interests during 1978 in Kalimantan (Indonesia), and a number of interests in Malaysia one of which (in Sarawak) was scandalously supported by the Japanese government (through JICA) and generated a major confrontation with indigenous people [ref: "Timber from the South Seas - An Analysis of Japan's Tropical Timber Trade and its Environmental Impact" by F Nectoux and Y Kuroda for WWF (1990)].
Daiken Corporation and Itochu jointly own 70% of Samling Fibreboard, whose output is just less than the 100,000m3 of fibreboard which its sisted company, Daiken Sarawak produces. Most of these two manufacturers' output is supplied to Japan.[ref: Japan Lumber Report (24 December 2005)]
Itochu also supplies wood-based products from Thailand and North America. It also facilitates the export of logs from Russia to Japan, as shown by chartering an unusually large log transport ship.[ref: Japan Lumber Reports (11 June 2004)]
Itochu Pulp-Paper annually imports in the order of five million tonne of wood chips, 0.5 million tonne of wood-based pulp, and 0.2 million tonne of finished paper. These quantities correspond with roughly 25%, 20% and 10% respectively of Japan's imports of each product.
Itochu, particularly as Itochu Pulp&Paper, imports paper from Indonesia, primarily for sale as printer/copier paper and notepaper. A substantial proportion of this paper is likely to be supplied by APP (Asia Pulp and Paper), the world's largest user of tropical forests for paper production - Itochu is APP's sole agent in Japan, has a large investment in APP and may well have a close strategic alliance with APP. APP is a controversial pulp and paper group which has major operations in SE Asia - primarily Indonesia (where it is the country's most bankrupt company and where natural tropical forest remains its principal source of wood fibre) and China.
However, this (new) business policy seems to apply only to prospective business rather to existing business - where the root of international concern lies.
Until the great majority of the wood-based products which Itochu businesses supply (whether to Japan, China or other countries) are credibly certified as both legal and from sustainably managed forest, Itochu's policy concerning legality and sustainability in its wood-based products will come under the scrutiny of NGOs and concerned investors. Despite Itochu's relationship with APP, Itochu is included in such indices of socially responsible investment as the Dow-Jones Global Sustainability Index.
HSBC, Credit Suisse Make A Mockery of Their Environmental Policy
Major news media in Hong Kong reported that two of the worldfs largest European banks, Credit Suisse and HSBC are to be arranging a USD 250 million share placement on the Hong Kong market in early March 2007 on behalf of the Samling Group, one of Malaysiafs largest forestry companies. The Samling Group has faced almost constant attack from pressure groups in Malaysia and internationally for the last thirty years over its allegedly destructive logging practices and corrupt business methods. The Group has its origins in northeast Sarawak where it been responsible for the logging of most of the primary forest in the region. It has since moved on to logging of primary forests in Cambodia, Guyana and through subsidiaries, in Papua New Guinea. Only a small portion of its forestry activities involve managed plantation forests, through a recently acquired operation in New Zealand. The involvement of these two banks in helping Samling to raise funds appears to be in direct conflict of their respective pledges on supporting sustainable forestry.
How the West is Funding the Greatest Climate Change Culprit
In the name of fighting terrorism, the United States and G8 powers are funding the Indonesian security apparatus which is standing by as the countryfs forests are illegally burnt year after year. Repeated forest fires, condoned and often aided by the military in the worldfs third largest tropically forested nation are responsible, on average in each of the last ten years, for half the carbon emissions of the United States and more than five times the Kyoto Protocolfs target for annual reduction!
Nippon Paper Asks for Comments on its Procurement Policy
Japan's leading paper company has produced a raw materials procurement policy relating to its buying of pulp, wood chips and paper for its operations. While the policy states that Nippon Paper will not utilise sources which use illegal logging, the policy is woefully lacking in details and makes no mention of phasing out of sourcing from highconservation value forests (HCVF) such as Tasmania's remaining primary forests, which it currently buys from.
Heavily logged northeast Sarawak's remaining primary forests are under assault by logging company Samling Strategic, one of Malaysia's leading forestry groups. Their activities are destroying the last primary forest habitat of the Penan tribes in the area, threaten the age-old Bario Highlands and involve illegal extraction of logs from accross the Indonesian border.
Sumatra's Last Primary Forests Sold as Copy Paper in Japan
Askul and Itochu are some of the leading business partners in Japan of Asia Pulp and Paper, an Indonesian pulp/paper company widely criticized for its unsustainable logging of high-biodiversity primary forests. The Japanese remain their best customer for copy paper.
