...terminate its cooperation with APP...Bandung, W Java (ANTARA News) - Dozens of environmental activists from Greenpeace Indonesia held a rally at the parking lot of a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant in Bandung on Wednesday.
The rally involved a theatrical act, in which demonstrators wore costumes of Sumatran tiger, Colonel Sanders (as in the fast-food restaurant`s logo) and French fries cardboard packaging.
They also unfurled a photo banner depicting the destruction of forests in Sumatra.
Greenpeace media campaigner Rahma said the rally was staged in protest against the fast food restaurants` use of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) products in their food packaging.
"We demand that KFC terminate its cooperation with APP, which has been destroying forests in Sumatra," she added.
According to Rahma, APP possesses four billion hectares of concession area in Sumatra and has been logging the tropical forests and peat swamp forests where Sumatran tigers live.
Sumatran peat forest destruction caused by APP`s activities is estimated to have reached 180,000 hectares, or twice the size of Jakarta province. Due to decreasing natural habitat, there are only about 400 Sumatran tigers left in the rainforest.
"That`s why we carry the tiger icons in every rally," Rahma explained.
Greenpeace has staged similar demonstrations in other cities, such as Semarang and Pekanbaru, urging fast food restaurants to stop using products that are not environmentally friendly.
Greenpeace launched an intensive campaign against the APP three months go. On March 2012, the organisation released the results of its investigation on APP, reporting that the company used Ramin wood for manufacturing its paper products.
Ramin wood has been registered as a protected tree species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The Indonesian government has banned the logging of Ramin wood since 2001.
Greenpeace conducted a year-long investigation into the Indah Kiat paper mill in Perawang, Sumatra.
The investigative team took 46 wood samples from the mill and sent it to an independent laboratory in Germany, where traces of Ramin were discovered in the samples.
APP denies the allegations.
(A050)
Editor: Ella Syafputri
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
