Disney World and Disneyland’s Rainforest Café is marketed as a “wild
place to shop and eat.” I don’t know about all that, but one of my earliest
memories of exposure to tropical rainforest-y surroundings, or at least
rainforest-themed locations was at the Disney World branch in Florida. The
other was the much more educational and realistic simulated rainforest at the
Baltimore Aquarium.
Both were during the early to mid-1980s
when ecology made its second or third leap into mainstream consciousness via
clever marketing schemes and toothless money-making ventures. Save the Amazon
by eating a rainforest crunch bar. Enjoy a CD of synthesizers woven seamlessly
into Peruvian pan pipes and pygmy chants. You are doing your part.
Are Mickey and Co. now putting
their money where their collective mouth is? That would have to be an
incredibly big mouth since the company’s net worth is estimated at around $5
billion US.
At any rate, the entertainment
giant has responded to an effective protest by the Rainforest Action Network
which last year hung a banner outside Disney headquarters in Burbank,
California reading “DISNEY: DESTROYING INDONESIA’S RAINFORESTS”.
Disney has announced a
comprehensive paper policy that maximizes its use of environmentally superior
papers like recycled and eliminates controversial sources like those connected
to Indonesian rainforest destruction. This policy applies to the company’s
entire international operations, including thousands of licensees of Disney characters.
And I bet you didn’t even know
that your Donald Duck Dixie cups were killing orangutans.
After initial resistance and then
negotiations with RAN, Disney agreed to source its paper from areas approved by
the Forest Stewardship Council and avoid using tropical hardwoods, such as
those logged in the Indonesian rainforests. It will also end its relationship
with two of the largest companies in terms of deforestation, namely Asian Pulp
and Paper (APP) and Asian Pacific Resources International Holdings.
From the Los Angeles Times:
Disney is the world’s largest
publisher of children’s books and magazines. Products bearing its brands are
manufactured at about 25,000 factories in more than 100 countries.
RAN also announced that nine
other US publishers, such as Random House and Penguin, have adopted similar
paper sourcing policies.
In the end it was a question of
brand image, according to Robin Averbeck, who lead the campaign for RAN.
From the Guardian:
She and other negotiators for Ran
said that it didn’t take long for senior executives to understand how damaging
it could be to Disney’s brand to be associated with the destruction of ancient
forests, the dwindling of Sumatran tigers and elephants, and a major
contribution to global warming.
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