00:00In Indonesia, tens of thousands of hectares of rainforest,
00:04including habitat for endangered orangutans,
00:07has been cleared by plantations linked to Asia Symbol,
00:11a paper company with a no-deforestation policy
00:14that markets its products as carbon neutral.
00:17Now communities nearby say they're paying the price.
00:23Behind this used to be a place for large logs.
00:26It's hard to say what it was like back then.
00:29It's hard to find forests like they used to be.
00:32An investigation by AFP and the NGO of a gecko project
00:36found that timber cleared here was processed nearby
00:39then shipped to Asia Symbol's factories in China.
00:42There, it was used in packaging for UK drug maker Halian,
00:46which makes Panadol and Sensodyne.
00:49The company has already damaged our crops,
00:52and they don't want to take responsibility.
00:54It breaks our hearts, but they just stay silent.
00:57Ika's family farm was made off limits
00:59when the plantations that supply Asia Symbol
01:02cleared one of the planet's most biodiverse forests,
01:05legally, with government permits.
01:08Locals say the resulting pollution has contaminated rivers
01:11and deforestation has made flooding worse.
01:15Many chemicals have been sprayed on the land,
01:18so when it rains, it runs off into the river.
01:20Now the river is very difficult to drink and very dangerous.
01:25AFP's investigation also raises questions about Royal Golden Eagle,
01:29Asia Symbol's parent company.
01:32The Singapore-based firm pledged to eliminate deforestation
01:35from its supply chain in 2015
01:37and secured a US$1 billion sustainability-linked loan last year.
01:45Just stop the companies that are destroying existing natural wood.
01:49Even if they plant trees,
01:51the existing natural wood will disappear.
01:54One tree planted, a million trees lost.
01:57It's not balanced.
01:59In response to the investigation,
02:02Asia Symbol reaffirmed its no-deforestation commitment
02:05and said it was reviewing its sourcing.
02:07However, UK-based Halian has already cut ties with the company.
02:11But for locals here, it's too little too late.
02:17There's bound to be some anxiety or disappointment.
02:20When we think back to the past,
02:22we miss the natural world.
02:24Given the current situation,
02:26we can't live there anymore.
02:28Indonesia has some of the highest rates
02:30of tree cover loss in the world,
02:32and this raises the risk of natural disasters
02:34and puts pressure on endangered species and climate targets.
02:38Still, in many cases,
02:39the short-term economic gains from clearing forests
02:42still went out over those long-term costs.
02:45Ryan Wu and Bryn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.
02:48What's this going on between?
02:49The learning rate of survival
02:51is the money através of freshwater
02:51We're quick to pierzeit for it.
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