Nature Alert: ARGOS - reply from

Friday 4 September 2009

ARGOS - reply from

a reply received by a supporter.

Dear

Many thanks for your letter to Terry Duddy. He has asked me to reply on his behalf.

I hope you will be reassured to know that the Argos catalogue is 100% recyclable, and that all the paper sourced for the catalogue is from European forests which are sustainable and well managed. Argos has received independent third party certification of its paper sourcing from the ‘Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification’ schemes (PEFC). A statement to that effect is on the spine of the latest catalogue and explanatory notes on the scheme can be found in the catalogue on page 1809.

Additionally, Argos has its own ‘chain of custody’ (C-O-C) certification from both PEFC and the ‘Forest Stewardship Council’ (FSC) for all its paper publications.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries. You can also find out more about the Group’s responsible retailing practices by clicking on the link below.

Yours sincerely,

Laurence Singer

Corporate Responsibility Manager

Home Retail Group plc

489 -499 Avebury Boulevard

Central Milton Keynes

MK9 2NW

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.