The South is the largest pulp and paper producing region in the world. While large corporate producers of paper and wood products no longer own much timberland, they continue to hold broad economic, social and political influence over those who do. Across the South and the world, unfortunately, paper companies can be driven — at least in part — to get their supply of wood at the cheapest financial cost without fully appreciating the environmental impacts of their purchasing on the forests.
Our strategy to support and push the large corporate buyers of pulp and paper to demand more responsibly produced products has made remarkable progress. Dogwood Alliance has successfully worked with several large pulp and paper companies to protect ecologically important forests, stop the conversion of natural forests to industrial pine plantations, and improve the management of the working landscape from which they buy wood.
Industry Leaders
AbitibiBowater: In June 2005, when Dogwood Alliance, NRDC, and AbitibiBowater (formerly Bowater, Inc.) announced the signing of an accord that increased protection for hundreds of thousands of acres on the Cumberland Plateau and across the South.
Domtar is the largest producer of cut sheet office paper in North America. Since its expansion to the United States, Domtar has positioned itself as a market leader when it comes to producing FSC certified paper in the office supply market.
Georgia-Pacific set itself apart as a leader in 2010 when it declared that it would no longer purchase paper from endangered forests or from pine plantations that had been converted from natural hardwood forests.
International Paper the largest paper producer in the world joined forces with Dogwood Alliance in April 2013 to map endangered forests and forests with high conservation value, to discourage the future conversion of natural hardwood forests to pine plantations, to expand IP’s FSC certifification in the US and globally, and to fund restoration and conservation of key forests in the South.
Industry Laggards
While some of the leading paper producers in the region are making progress, MeadWestvaco has yet to make any real improvements to its forestry practices. Even worse, while MeadWestvaco continues to destroy forests on a massive scale, the company claims to be a leader on forest sustainability, using the outdated and discredited Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), a scheme created by paper companies to mislead customers and the public. Dogwood will continue to put market pressure on MeadWestvaco until the company changes its ways.
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