标签： Oceania

A landmark joint investigation by Agence France-Presse (AFP) and non-profit investigative outlet The Gecko Project has uncovered massive deforestation of critically endangered orangutan habitat in Indonesian Borneo, linked to a supply chain that produces purportedly carbon-neutral packaging for major global consumer brands.

The clearing, which took place across nearly 30,000 hectares of biodiverse rainforest in Central Kalimantan Province — an area almost three times the size of Paris — has unfolded between 2016 and 2024, according to satellite imagery analysis, government audit documents, trade records, and on-the-ground reporting from the investigation team. The timber is sourced from government-permitted industrial plantations, processed at Indonesia’s Phoenix Resources International (PRI) mill, and then shipped to pulp and paper manufacturer Asia Symbol, a subsidiary of Singapore-based multinational conglomerate Royal Golden Eagle (RGE).

For years, RGE has positioned itself as a leader in sustainable supply chain management: the conglomerate pledged to eliminate deforestation from its operations by 2015, secured a $1 billion sustainability-linked loan in 2024, and is actively lobbying to regain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, which labels products as responsibly sourced. Asia Symbol, which supplies packaging to global pharmaceutical giant Haleon — maker of household brands Panadol and Sensodyne — also maintains a public no-deforestation policy.

The investigation’s findings directly contradict these high-profile sustainability pledges. Analysts traced pulp from plantations that cleared old-growth rainforest, home to the last remaining populations of Bornean orangutans, all the way to Asia Symbol’s production facilities in China. Satellite data confirms that thousands of hectares of natural forest have been cleared to make way for fast-growing acacia and eucalyptus plantations operated by Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP), one of the top suppliers to the PRI mill. Trade data and ship tracking confirm that PRI has regularly shipped pulp to Asia Symbol’s Chinese mills since January 2025, with one 2024 shipment even celebrated with a formal welcome ceremony and ceremonial cannons at the Chinese port of Rugao.

The environmental and human cost of the clearing has been severe for local communities. Indigenous and local residents who have relied on the Bornean rainforest for generations have lost access to traditional farming land and hunting grounds, with displaced residents forced to relocate to find work. Many families report that promised compensation for seized land has never materialized. Intact tree cover that once absorbed heavy rainfall has been removed, leading to a sharp increase in frequent and destructive flooding across the region. Local residents also report rising concerns over water pollution from plantation runoff, making once-safe river water unsafe to drink.

“My eyes well up remembering how it was,” Agau, 69-year-old secretary of Humbang Raya village located inside the IFP concession, told AFP investigators. “It’s hard to find anything like it used to be. Our lives, our livelihood here, depend on the forest that we have. That is our only hope.” Ika Magdalena, a pregnant mother of three who lost her farm to the concession, added: “They’ve already damaged our crops, and they don’t want to take responsibility. It breaks our hearts, but they just stay silent.”

Local government officials defended the concession, noting that IFP has not committed any formal violations of Indonesian forestry law and contributes tax revenue and reforestation funds to the region. But environmental campaigners say the permits prioritize corporate profit over community and ecological health, with almost none of the economic benefits of the concession reaching local residents. “Communities lose sources of livelihood, both food and income, and there are no alternative options,” said Bayu Herinata of the Central Kalimantan branch of Indonesian environmental group WALHI.

In response to the investigation’s findings, Asia Symbol stated that it is committed to its no-deforestation policy and has launched a focused review of its sourcing from the PRI mill, noting that the complexity of global supply chains “creates real due diligence challenges.” The company also claimed that its carbon-neutral packaging produced for Haleon did not include pulp from the PRI mill, but failed to provide evidence of how it segregates pulp from different sources. IFP and PRI did not respond to multiple requests for comment from investigators.

Environmental advocates say the case exposes a pattern of greenwashing by RGE, which has faced repeated allegations of deforestation and land conflict over the past decade. The company’s attempt to regain FSC certification stalled last year following allegations that affiliate staff attacked an Indigenous community, and a 2023 acknowledgement of deforestation in two other supply chain concessions never resulted in the promised policy changes. “Their commitments are nothing more than greenwashing to convince their buyers that they are cleaning up their act,” said Grant Rosoman, senior forest campaign advisor for Greenpeace International.

Robin Averbeck, forest programme director at the Rainforest Action Network, added that RGE has leveraged its unfulfilled sustainability pledges to access billions of dollars in discounted green financing from global banks. “The findings of this investigation indicate that RGE is still very much in the business of deforestation,” Averbeck said.

Following the release of the investigation, UK-based Haleon announced it would cut all ties with Asia Symbol. While the company stated its own internal investigations found no evidence of deforestation-linked material in its supply chain, it said it was “nevertheless very concerned by the allegations” and has ordered its suppliers to exclude all material from Asia Symbol and any other plantation linked to deforestation risk.

Indonesia consistently ranks among the countries with the highest annual tree cover loss globally, according to Global Forest Watch. Deforestation in the country not only threatens endangered species like the Bornean orangutan and undermines global climate goals, but also increases the risk of deadly natural disasters. Last year, deforestation-fueled floods and landslides killed more than 1,000 people across Sumatra, a disaster the Indonesian government publicly acknowledged was worsened by forest loss, yet no major policy changes to curb deforestation have been implemented nationwide.

On the 27th anniversary of one of the most infamous mass shootings in United States history, a lone gunman launched a deadly attack at Mexico’s iconic Teotihuacan archaeological site, leaving one person dead and more than a dozen injured before turning the gun on himself. New details emerging from official investigations reveal the 27-year-old attacker, Julio Cesar Jasso Ramirez, drew ideological inspiration from two starkly different sources: the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and ancient pre-Hispanic ritual human sacrifice.

The violence unfolded on a Monday at the UNESCO-recognized pre-Columbian heritage site, a top global tourist destination located roughly 50 kilometers outside of Mexico City. By the end of the rampage, a Canadian tourist was dead, 13 other people had sustained injuries, and the attacker had died by suicide. In the days following the incident, Mexico State Prosecutor Jose Luis Cervantes Martinez outlined key findings from the ongoing probe, confirming Jasso Ramirez, a Mexico City resident, spent months carefully plotting the attack.

According to Cervantes, the gunman made multiple scouting trips to the archaeological site in advance, booked stays at nearby hotels to survey the area, and mapped out his violent plan long before the scheduled date of the attack. Investigators quickly uncovered clear, chilling links between the Teotihuacan attack and the 1999 Columbine massacre, which killed 12 students and one teacher and wounded 20 others in Colorado, and fell on the exact same calendar date 27 years before Jasso Ramirez’s attack.

“The collected evidence reveals a psychopathic profile of the attacker, characterized by a tendency to copy situations that happened in other places at other times by other people,” Cervantes told reporters at a Tuesday press conference.

Investigators found multiple pieces of evidence tying the gunman directly to the Columbine attackers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Among Jasso Ramirez’s personal belongings, authorities discovered an AI-generated image depicting the Mexican gunman posing alongside Harris and Klebold. The shirt he wore to carry out the shooting also matched the style of the trench coats worn by the two Columbine perpetrators.

Witness testimony has also shed light on why the attacker specifically chose the Teotihuacan site for his violence, pointing to a fascination with pre-Columbian ritual sacrifice. Jacqueline Gutierrez, an American tourist who was visiting the pyramids with her family and partner when the shooting broke out, recalled the gunman shouting that the site was a place for sacrifice, not sightseeing photos. He also explicitly referenced that the day marked the Columbine massacre anniversary, Gutierrez told Mexican broadcaster Milenio.

Gutierrez described the 14-minute attack as a period of unmitigated terror, with visitors trapped on the pyramid structure with no route for escape. “We couldn’t move or we’d fall down the pyramid…if he had wanted to kill us all, he would have,” she said, adding that Jasso Ramirez told witnesses he had spent three years planning the attack.

Investigators have so far confirmed that Jasso Ramirez acted entirely alone, with no known collaborators or extremist group ties. A search of his belongings turned up a collection of written materials referencing notorious mass attacks and violent figures linked to this type of criminal violence, further supporting the conclusion that the incident was an act of lone-wolf copycat violence.

A deadly premeditated shooting at one of Mexico’s most iconic cultural landmarks has left one international tourist dead and more than a dozen injured, sending shockwaves through the country’s tourism sector just weeks ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Authorities confirmed Tuesday that the attack, carried out Monday at the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Teotihuacan archaeological site, was planned days in advance and directly inspired by one of the United States’ most infamous mass killings.

The shooter, identified as 27-year-old Julio Cesar Jasso Ramirez, a resident of Mexico City, took his own life as Mexican military personnel approached to apprehend him. The sole fatality was a Canadian woman in her early 20s who was visiting the site. Thirteen other people were wounded in the attack, which unfolded on the Pyramid of the Moon – the 45-meter-tall ancient monument that draws thousands of global visitors annually. Among the injured were a six-year-old boy, a second Canadian national, a Colombian woman, a Brazilian man, and two American citizens.

Mexico State Prosecutor Jose Luis Cervantes told reporters at a press briefing alongside Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum that the attacker had carried out extensive pre-attack preparation. “He made multiple visits to the pyramids, stayed in hotels near the site ahead of time, and from there planned his violent acts,” Cervantes said. Investigators recovered a backpack at the shooting scene that contained a loaded firearm, a knife, 52 additional rounds of ammunition, and printed materials and images directly connected to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, according to Cervantes.

The 1999 Columbine attack, carried out by two teenaged students who killed 12 classmates and one teacher before dying by suicide, has become a twisted inspiration for dozens of copycat mass shootings around the globe in the decades since. Jacqueline Gutierrez, an American visitor who survived Monday’s attack, told Mexican newspaper Milenio that the shooter explicitly referenced the attack’s 27th anniversary, which fell on April 20. He also made comments tying the Teotihuacan site to its history of pre-colonial ritual sacrifices, Gutierrez added.

President Sheinbaum confirmed that investigators have found no links between the shooting and organized crime, noting that the perpetrator “had psychological problems” and “was influenced by events that had occurred abroad.” She called the attack an unprecedented event for Mexican archaeological sites and pushed for immediate policy changes to strengthen safety protocols at tourist destinations across the country. “We need to have better security to make sure someone can’t enter an archaeological site, a tourist site, with a firearm,” Sheinbaum said.

Teotihuacan, the ancient capital of a pre-Aztec civilization that built its massive step pyramids between the 1st and 7th centuries AD, is Mexico’s second most-visited archaeological site, drawing millions of visitors every year. Until Monday, the site had no history of violent mass attacks. Prior to the shooting, visitors entered the site without any security screenings for weapons, Juan Carlos Mejia, executive director of local tourism agency Estur, told AFP. “Previously they never check you,” before entering, Mejia said.

In response to the attack, authorities have closed the site temporarily to adjust safety measures, with a scheduled reopening on Wednesday that will introduce enhanced security protocols. The shooting comes just three weeks before Mexico is set to host multiple matches in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including the tournament’s opening match on June 11 in Mexico City – just 50 kilometers from the Teotihuacan site. President Sheinbaum’s call for tighter gun controls at tourist sites has drawn broad support from tourism industry leaders, who say the changes are critical to protecting both visitors and Mexico’s reputation as a top international travel destination.