| Author: | David Allan Sonnenfeld |
| Title: | Greening the tiger? Social movements' influence on adoption of environmental technologies in the pulp and paper industries of Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand |
| Institution: | University of California, Santa Cruz |
| Date: | September 1996 |
| Advisor: | Profs. Andrew Szasz (chair), Paul Lubeck, James O'Connor |
| Key Words: | activism adoption Australia bleach chemical chlorine community conflict cooperation development dioxin ECF elemental engineering environment ethnicity eucalyptus Finland global government Greenpeace history Indonesia industry innovation international Jaakko Poyry kraft Malaysia NGOs paper politics pollution plantation pulp regulation science social movements sociology Southeast Asia Sweden TCF technology Thailand transfer wastewater wood |
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| Abstract: | Few industries have grown so fast, or been so conflictual, as the pulp
and paper industries of Australia, Indonesia and Thailand in the late 1980s
and early 1990s. High-profile disputes flared in all three countries
over social and environmental impacts of pulp mill development. By
the mid-1990s, manufacturers in all three countries were adopting cleaner
production technologies. Do these developments indicate the successful
'greening' of these industries, including in newly industrializing countries
not known for stringent environmental regulation? What is the relationship
between environmental and community activism and pulp firms' adoption of
green technologies in these countries?
I sought answers to these questions in 12 months' field research, interviews, and archival study in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand; correspondence with individuals and organizations in Finland; additional studies in North America; and use of available data. I found that local activists had successfully influenced government regulation of new and existing industry, and encouraged industry adoption of cleaner, elementally chlorine-free (ECF), pulping and bleaching technologies in Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Initially resistant to change, leading pulp manufacturers in these countries modified existing processing, adopted new technologies, produced more efficiently, and gained access to new (green) markets. Globally, Greenpeace International played a crucial role in encouraging development and adoption of the new technologies. This study extends scholarship on the social construction of technology by addressing environmental technology, Southeast Asia and Australia, the pulp and paper industry, social activism, North-South trade relations, and ethnic conflict. |