Do you want to know more about Stora Enso?
Whether growing and harvesting trees, making renewable products, transporting materials or working with suppliers, Stora Enso has an impact on people. We are committed to respecting human rights throughout our operations and in all relationships. Human rights in this context include, at minimum, those rights set out in the International Bill of Rights, the core labour rights conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and international agreements on the rights of vulnerable groups.
Respecting human rights in land acquisition and management is one of our priority areas. Community consultations, including Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), continue to be a key element in our human rights due diligence and forestry operations, especially concerning land leasing and indigenous peoples’ rights.
Stora Enso is a major private forest owner in Sweden and a significant forestry operator in both Finland and Sweden. We recognise our responsibilities regarding the rights of indigenous Sámi people living in areas that are located on or next to our land, or where we procure wood.
In central Sweden, we have had special agreements on land use with five Sámi communities since 1992. These agreements provide the Sámi communities with access to forest land for their reindeer herds to graze during the winter season. The agreement covers Stora Enso forests as well as a few other private forest owners in the area.
We now have well-established practices for dialogue, including regular discussions on forestry, reindeer herding and each other’s opportunities and challenges. The Sámi communities are always consulted before any forestry operations, and all consultation meetings are documented. The year’s activities are reviewed, and the content of the consultations is revisited in annual evaluation meetings.
Over the years, the annual meeting has developed into an opportunity to come together and learn from each other, with visits to both Stora Enso operations and Sámi reindeer herding activities. This has fostered collaboration and we now address challenges together. For instance, when preparing the soil for replanting, there is a risk of damaging certain species of lichen. Lichen is what reindeer feed on in the forest during winter. By working together, we have developed a way to avoid damaging lichen when regenerating the forest. This ensures that the reindeer can find enough food in productive forests.
Engaging and maintaining good relationships with indigenous communities is a high priority for the team of community liaison officers at Veracel, our joint venture in Brazil. They are in regular contact with community representatives to agree on actions and next steps. The actions are developed together with the indigenous communities and aim to promote active dialogue and preserve the traditional culture. They support educational, cultural and infrastructure programmes for 32 indigenous villages on the Discovery Coast, 29 Pataxó and three Tupinambá communities with a total of approximately 25,000 people. Within the Education is Life programme, Veracel donates school supplies to approximately 5,000 indigenous elementary and high school students and teachers annually and supports the construction of classrooms and nurseries. Every year Veracel also supports the Exhibition of Traditional Indigenous Games, the Aragwaksã Event.
“We have learned a lot over the years and we are proud of the relationship we have built with the indigenous communities in our region. We were able to establish this important relationship by actively listening to the needs of this population, with credibility, ethics, transparency and, consequently, trust”, highlights Renato Gomes Carneiro Filho, our Sustainability and Corporate Relations director at Veracel.
Some of the indigenous communities are calling for the expansion of the Barra Velha Indian Reserve. The extension would cover hundreds of land properties, including 3,219 hectares of land acquired by Veracel before the indigenous peoples first made claim to the land. At the end of 2023, this case was still being processed by the regional federal court. Veracel remains committed to complying fully with the court’s eventual decision.
Our forestry employees in Guangxi, China, work in co-operation with local communities to understand the potential social impacts of our operations. For example, ethnic minorities, formally recognised by the Guangxi government, live in many areas of the province. This was reconfirmed in the latest community mapping completed by Stora Enso’s forestry operations in China during 2020, as part of new forest certification requirements to map all local indigenous communities. Whereas previous mappings by Stora Enso focused on two regions around our plantations where the presence of ethnic minorities was known, the new mapping included all four neighbouring regions with eight prefecture-level cities. The mapping concluded that 16% of all communities in these regions can be considered ethnic minorities. In two prefecture-level cities, Nanning and Chongzou, the combined share of such communities is 88%. The assessment gave us a more comprehensive understanding of the structure and customs of the communities around our plantations which helps us further develop our social engagement activities.
In 2023, we completed our eight-year remediation programme in Pakistan according to plan. The programme supported six local schools, offering education to 640 children who were identified as child workers in the supply chain of Stora Enso’s former 35% minority holding in the equity-accounted investment in Bulleh Shah Packaging (Private) Ltd. The programme was conducted in collaboration with the non-governmental organisation Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA).
The remediation initiative provided children access to compulsory primary school education, and vocational training for older children and female family members. As also the younger children grew older, the programme shifted its focus from compulsory education to preparing the students to pursue employment or further education through vocational courses. Additionally, to support learning and develop IT skills, computer labs were established.
Overall, by 2023, as many as 78% of the younger
children had completed primary education,
while the remaining 22% were still pursuing their primary education. Furthermore,
approximately 180 children had pursued a vocational skill, such as tailor,
beautician, or electrician, while approximately 300 mothers and sibling
received training in handicrafts.
Stora Enso does not tolerate forced or child labour in its operations or value chain. Read more about our commitment and mitigative actions in the Human Rights Guidelines and Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement available here.
For several years, Veracel, our joint venture in Brazil, has successfully cooperated with the NGO Childhood Brasil to combat child abuse and exploitation in the nearby municipalities of Belmonte, Porto Seguro, Santa Cruz de Cabralia, and Eunápolis. The goal has been to improve the capacity of the municipalities to handle cases of child abuse and adolescent violence through strengthening public policies and providing training for professionals. In 2020, Childhood Brasil and Veracel, together with the judiciary, civil society, and municipal representatives, agreed on a ten-year plan to continue this work.
Veracel also supports an extracurricular programme developed by the NGO Ecoar, which aims to strengthen the cultural development of socially vulnerable children and adolescents in the city of Porto Seguro. The programme includes after-school ballet, music and theatre workshops.
Similarly, Montes del Plata, our joint venture in Uruguay, together with local educational institutions and other organisations, initiated an English learning programme for students at a local secondary school. The goal is to motivate the students to take their studies further through recreational and cultural activities.
