The United Nations Development Programme and Stora Enso, a Finnish multinational paper products company, are joining forces in south-west Guangxi Province in a public-private partnership that UNDP hopes will set new standards for environmental and social corporate practice.

The agreement “can help Stora Enso make a positive contribution to commercial plantations in China and offer a bench-mark for operational best practices for large-scale investment projects,” according to Renaud Meyer, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in China.

The five-year deal follows a joint Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the company’s forest plantation project in Guangxi. The collaboration will attempt to conserve biodiversity and foster social development through rural communication and information centres, along with investments for health, water, hygiene, basic education and skills development.

“Environmental impacts identified in the study will be managed with Stora Enso's good plantation management practices,” according to the company, which has moved to reassure investors that the ESIA report contains “no major environmental or social issues that could jeopardise [its] plantation project.’’ In UNDP’s words, the assessment “does not highlight any show-stoppers.”

Guangxi is strategically important to the company’s operations because it offers “one of the few places in China where Stora Enso could build a pulp, paper and board mill complex close to plantations,” according to a November statement by Asia-Pacific President, Markku Pentikäinen.

The company, which had operations across five continents and sales of EUR 13.2 billion in 2005, is increasing its plantations by 120,000 hectares and has recently contracted 34,000 hectares of land in Guangxi. The company is also expanding in timber-rich South America and Russia.

Renaud Meyer adds that “We would like to use this opportunity to demonstrate the potential of these ESIAs to promote sustainable development and the importance of public and private partnerships to China’s development.” But the agreement is also a PR coup for Stora Enso, whose Chief Financial Officer, Hannu Ryöppönen, concedes that it “increases the credibility of the project and helps Stora Enso win the acceptance of stakeholders.”

AIDS prevention partnership

Meanwhile, more than 100 business leaders and government representatives from China and abroad gathered in Beijing at the end of March for an HIV/AIDS workshop organised by UNDP, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the China Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS in China.

Participants discussed staff and workplace policies, including educating employees on discrimination against workers living with the disease. UNDP described the meeting as “an effort to bring that work down to a very practical level, and provide businesses with resources they will need to address the problem in the workplace and local communities where they operate.”

Constance Thomas, Director of the International Labour Organisation for China and Mongolia, told the workshop that “The workplace is an important and ideal setting where reliable information on HIV/AIDS prevention can be disseminated to the working people, especially to those who may be engaging in behavior that puts them at risk of becoming infected by HIV.”

The point was reinforced by UNDP specialist on HIV/AIDS, Edmund Settle, who noted that “There is an urgent need to strengthen the general population's knowledge and understanding of HIV/AIDS, and the private sector is in a perfect position to facilitate efficient and sustained distribution of HIV/AIDS education and awareness messages.”

Report by Matt Perrement, 30 March 2006