Preparing for the future - children from the Shankou Forest Farm school.
MAKING A GOOD FUTURE
FOR OUR CHILDREN
Stora Enso invests in the future of the Chinese people
Text: Hannu Pesonen
Photography: Jarmo Hietaranta
The forest products industry contributes to the economic development and social well-being of communities worldwide. The major players in the industry take the challenge of sustainable development seriously – taking actions that combine strong economic performance with sound environmental management and attention to social conditions.
Stora Enso, headquartered in Finland with operations in more than 40 countries, is one of the world’s leading paper, packaging, and forest products companies. Sustainability has been identified as one of Stora Enso’s key strategies. As it enters new growth markets, such as China, Stora Enso faces new challenges in sustainable development. For example, the company’s typical approach of having an objective third party perform an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment prior to the design of a project is a practice virtually unheard of in China.
Stora Enso is also one of the Andritz Group’s key clients in the forest products sector. Andritz has supplied process technology and equipment to Stora Enso mills in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. Like Stora Enso, Andritz is committed to improving the safety, economic, and social well-being of its workers and the communities where it operates.
The following article, adapted from Stora Enso’s Tempus magazine for stakeholders, highlights some of the social sustainability challenges companies face in new growth markets. Andritz sincerely respects Stora Enso for its commitment to sustainability and thanks them for permission to adapt this article.
From the center of a bare wall, the watchful gaze of Chairman Mao Zedong dominates Shen Dexing’s and Liang Chaozheng’s simple living room in their house in tiny Shen Wu village. Traditional, perhaps, but it’s not the whole picture.
A new television set stands on a shiny wooden chest of drawers. An electric fan hums softly, and there is a telephone on the coffee table. Mr. Shen’s truck is parked in front of the house, and he constantly fiddles with his cell phone. The conversation in the room unashamedly jumps from hiring staff to making profits to buying a new car.
Even here, in the rural backwoods of Guangxi Autonomous Region in Southern China, the first signs of China’s powerful thrust towards market economy are clearly visible. Shen’s leap from subsistence farmer to entrepreneur and provider of labor for an international company, Stora Enso, seems to constitute a true Chinese dream.
“For a long time, we lived by planting cassava, paddy rice, and peanuts, mainly for our own consumption,” recalls Shen. “Then, we started cash crops such as sugarcane. Finally, we bought our first tractor.”
Of course the tractor was very small, Shen hastens to add, but it allowed the family to get into selling wood for construction. “Then, we bought a truck to transport fertilizers and timber,” he says. “I established my own forest company. Now, we employ 10-20 people, depending on the season, and provide labor for Stora Enso’s plantation near Shankou town.”
Starting with a plantation
Stora Enso started investing in Guangxi in 2002 with the aim of establishing 160,000 hectares of industrial hardwood plantations on a trial basis. With the plantations underway, Stora Enso is now preparing to set up an integrated pulp, paper, and board mill complex near the plantations.
"If the project proceeds as planned,” says Kari Tuomela, President of Stora Enso Guangxi, “Stora Enso will become the leading forestry player in this region and among the very few international companies to have invested in this relatively neglected part of China.”
Even at this preliminary stage, Stora Enso employs 150 people in the region, with another 2,000 indirectly involved in field work through contractors like Shen. The UNDP estimates thousands of people to profit from the project if the integrated mill becomes a reality.
Social challenges
According to LiYing Luan, Assistant Resident Representative of UNDP’s China office, the United Nations regards the private sector as a key partner in fighting poverty and social inequality. “In China and the rest of the world, environmental and social responsibilities have become part of the management philosophy of many businesses,” she says. “The private sector is indispensable. It is increasingly in their best interests to be part of the solution rather than part of problem.”
Answering the challenge, admits Tuomela, is a formidable task. That is why Stora Enso began a four-year cooperation with UNDP last March to promote sustainable development and social welfare in local communities and conserve the biodiversity in the region. The initiative is a direct follow-up of an environmental and social impact assessment of Stora Enso’s forest plantation, conducted by UNDP. Such assessments and mitigation efforts are normal for any new Stora Enso project, but they are not common in China.
The UNDP study found no major environmental or social issues that might jeopardize Stora Enso's plantation project. According to Luan, the local communities are likely to benefit from the project in terms of biodiversity conservation, social engagement for equity, and improved social well-being regarding health, safe water, hygiene practices, basic education, and skill development.
“The real challenges lie more in the social issues than on the environmental side,” Kari Tuomela says.
Growth stimulates change
The changes engendered by China's consistently strong growth penetrate to the more remote and quieter regions, too. Take the Shens' nearest outlet, Shankou. Despite its genuine small town atmosphere, the advertisements and international consumer trademarks are already creeping in. And, a half-day’s drive along a wide, new, well-surfaced highway takes you to Nanning, a city of five million inhabitants. Blocks of skyscrapers now cover a wide area that only five years ago was an empty wasteland. The benign smile of Colonel Sanders pops up here and there at numerous Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets. Nokia, Coca Cola, Audi, and Toyota abound.
And these products are not only displayed, they are in great demand. Everybody wants to be rich. Everybody wants a car, fridge, and TV set. Everybody wants a shop next door selling the latest electronics and exciting merchandise.
Sacrifices for children
Gaining wealth tastes both sweet and sour. The days are long for Shen and Liang. In fact, the Spring Festival, better known as the Chinese New Year, is the only time when Shen admits taking leave from his duties.
“I always prepare lunch in the morning so the children can have it if we can’t attend to them,” says Liang. She manages the kitchen in traditional style, steaming the rice and stir-frying strips of vegetables and meat in homemade peanut oil in a wok on a coal fire. There are no electrical appliances, even though the family got electricity four years ago and running water recently.
“A fridge would be nice, but it would cost us more than 2,000 yuan (approximately 250 US dollars),” Liang says. “We put everything into the children’s education. Making a good future for the children is our foremost dream.”
Their dream seems to be coming true. Their two eldest daughters have secured sought-after jobs in a computer firm and a TV sales company. The eldest son, 19, is battling to secure an education that will give him a chance to compete for a highly paid and appreciated professional job. The top universities take only the best.
I wish him the best of luck. In clear and unaccented English, the young man’s answer is telling: “Thank you. I believe in myself.”
Hannu Pesonen is a Finnish journalist who focuses his writing on development issues and crisis reporting. His work has taken him to more than 120 countries. He is the author of four books and his feature articles have been published in more than 20 countries. He is a regular contributor to Tempus, the Stora Enso international stakeholder magazine, where this article was first published.
Jarmo Hietaranta is a Finnish photographer whose career spans over three decades. He has contributed to all major Finnish news and family magazines and currently is a video producer and photographer. He has filmed many documentaries on international events for television. His photographs have been displayed in several individual and joint exhibitions.
Liang (right) and Shen (second from right) with three of their six children.
Shen's leap from subsistence farmer to entrepreneur is part of the new Chinese Dream.