Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (President: Masatomo Nakamura) is pleased to announce that it had expanded afforested area under the Tree Farm Initiative up to approximately 104,000 hectares outside Japan as of the end of September this year. (Please refer to the attachment.)

The Company set a target of developing afforestation over 100,000 hectares by 2008 in its Tree Farm Initiative, an overseas afforestation project that voluntarily cultivates hardwood tree chips as sustainable resources. The project achieved the target two years ahead of the deadline defined in the Initiative.

 

To "create and conserve forest resources" in practical terms as set out in the Action Guidelines of its Environmental Charter, Nippon Paper Industries began planting eucalyptuses in Chile in 1992. Later, afforestation activities were expanded to South Africa and Australia. In Chile, planted trees have been harvested and exported as woodchips for paper manufacturing since April 2003. In Australia, woodchips harvested from Tree Farms in Bunbury, Western Australia and in Portland, Victoria have been shipped since spring this year.

 

In the Tree Farms, coppice renewal (See Note 1) or replanting is undertaken after harvesting for paper manufacturing materials, to continuously create forest resources. To consistently achieve sustainable forestry management in the future, the Company is endeavoring to acquire forest certification from third-party bodies for all Company-owned forests in Japan and overseas by 2008.

 

In 2005, Nippon Paper Group launched the Group Vision 2015 to set out its vision for what the Group should be like in ten years. In the future, the Company will be committed to boosting the Tree Farm Initiative, actively developing the overseas afforestation project to achieve an afforestation area of 200,000 hectares as called for in Group Vision 2015.

 

Note1: Coppice renewal refers to the cultivation of sprouts that naturally come up from stumps after cutting trees for the purpose of reforestation.