06/07/2010 (International Business Times) - Greenpeace, a non-governmental environmental group blamed retailers like Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco for deforestation and contributing to extinction of endangered species in Indonesia, in its latest report named "How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet" released on Tuesday.

Many global firms transacted with Sinar Mas to buy paper and palm oil. Sinar Mas palm oil and paper is used in a range of products sold in stores and supermarkets around the world, from toilet paper and luxury shopping bags to chocolate bars and doughnuts.

The report says that Asia Pulp and Paper(APP), a subsidiary of Sinar Mas, is continuously destructing rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia causing more carbon emissions into the atmosphere and making the endangered species extinct.

Tropical forest destruction is responsible for around 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the report said.

"Sinar Mas's 'sustainability commitments' are not worth the paper they are written on and some of the world's best known brands are literally pulping the planet by buying from them," Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner Bustar Maitar said in a statement.

Some of the noted global companies transacting with Sinar Mas are Carrefour, Walmart, Tesco, Hewlett Packard, and KFC. Magazine publishers like National Geographic, CNN Traveller, Cosmo Girl, ELLE, Esquire and Marie Claire are also involved in using paper from Sinar Mas.

The report also alleges Sinar Mas’s unsustainable logging practices to carry out palm oil plantations as a major peril to biodiversity in Indonesia.

Palm oil buyers from Sinar Mas included US-based Cargill and Wilmar of Singapore, Japanese cosmetics maker Shiseido and US companies Campbell Soup Company, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts and Pizza Hut.

The report points out contrasting connections by global companies with Sinar Mas and its subsidiaries with regard to palm oil and paper products. The report blames Carrefour for continuing sales of oil products in Indonesia, but applauds the actions of Unilever, Kraft and Nestle for cancelling palm oil supplies from Sinar Mas subsidiaries.

Regarding paper products, Carrefour, Staples, Office Depot and Woolworths (Australia) stopped buying or selling paper products associated with APP, whereas Kimberly Clark, Kraft, Nestle and Unilever were examining contracts with APP.

The study covered APP logging areas such as the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape, home to endangered Sumatran tigers and orangutans. Kerumutan that observes carbon from entering into atmosphere caused due to logging and clearing.

According to recent estimates, Indonesia is the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases with palm oil and paper industries being the significant contributors.