Greenpeace activists block Swedish pulp mill wiping critical forests off the face of the earth

Train tracks leading to the mill have also been blocked, as well as the road used for transporting pulp out from the mill. Activists have hung a 15 x 20 metres banner on the mill with a message to Essity: ‘Stop wiping away forests’. Today’s activities are taking place in locations where there is no inconvenience to public traffic.

The SCA Östrand pulp mill in Timrå sources its wood from logging companies that are destroying the last critical forest landscapes in northern Sweden. These areas have been identified by the Swedish authorities as having ‘particularly high ecological preservation values’. 

Today’s peaceful protest, with Greenpeace Nordic activists, follows the release of a Greenpeace International report, Wiping Away the Boreal, which reveals how Essity is driving the destruction of critical parts of Europe’s Great Northern Forest, in Sweden, Finland and Russia. 

Greenpeace Nordic Great Northern Forest project leader, Erika Bjureby said:

“It is insane that Essity is allowing these beautiful and critical areas of forests to be destroyed to make toilet tissue brands. The company needs to stop its pulp suppliers wiping critical forests off the face of the earth or stop doing business with them. We need to stop chopping trees here now, before the Great Northern Forest is logged into pieces.”

Greenpeace has launched an online petition calling on Essity to clean up its supply chain and stop wiping away the forests.

Erika Bjureby added:

“Over 200,000 individuals have already signed the petition to defend the unique parts of the Great Northern Forest. Now Essity needs to hear the voice of the people and their customers: stop logging before the critical forest landscapes Great Northern Forest become so fragmented that the beautiful biodiversity is lost.”