Forest campaigners attack Ryman’s ‘carbon neutral’ paper claims

New brand of paper is FSC-certified but the stationer’s environmental credentials have been questioned by green groups and charities that work with Brazil’s forest communities

The first brand of “carbon neutral” office paper to be launched in the UK has been attacked by green groups and charities working with indigenous forest communities for the claims it makes.

The high street stationer Ryman, owned by Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis, has released Report Carbon Neutral as part of a plan to turn its 240 stores carbon neutral by March. But the claims about the paper have come under question in an investigation by Fred Pearce’s Greenwash column on the Guardian’s environment website.

The paper comes from Brazilian paper giant Suzano and is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which was set up 15 years ago to recognise sustainable sources of wood and paper. But Suzano makes its paper from 300,000 hectares of monoculture eucalyptus plantations in Brazil. Local green groups claim these alien species do not support any native wildlife and that the plantations pollute rivers and displace peasant farmers.

“It is not sustainable generally speaking for the subsistence farmers who are living there,” said Sarah Wilson, Latin America specialist for Christian Aid. “They are effectively displaced … the money very rarely comes back to the local community. It tends to be elites and multinationals that benefit.”

Simon Counsell, director of Rainforest Foundation UK and a founder member of the FSC, who has since been critical of the group, said. “The FSC doesn’t really seem to provide a reliable guarantee that [paper] comes from a sustainably managed area.”

The FSC does not claim to provide any guarantee about carbon neutrality. Suzano says that “production and transportation” emissions are offset by growing native trees at a different location in Sao Paulo state, but this excludes distribution to shops. The offsetting is done by an organisation called the Green Initiative, which will plant 6.1 trees per tonne of paper produced. But the organisation only promises to maintain the site for two years, giving no guarantee that the trees will not be logged before they have absorbed the required amount of carbon – an estimated 37 years.

“Plantation policy is one of our most debated policies. It divides our members. But the consensus is that plantations are essential to supplying demand for fibre, so we want to have a positive impact by applying rules for granting certification,” said Alison Kriscenski, head of communications for FSC international in Germany.

“There is a really obvious way to promote sustainability in the paper sector and that is to use recycled paper,” said Andy Tait, biodiversity campaign manager at Greenpeace.