Disney Dumps Rainforest-Killing Paper Makers

It took a lot of cajoling—including some activists chaining themselves to the gates of its corporate headquarters—but Disney has at last agreed to stop using paper from a pair of controversial Asian companies accused of depleting Indonesia's rainforests, the Guardian reports. "The Jungle Book will no longer be destroying the jungle," quipped one environmental activist. Disney is one of the largest publishers of children's books in the world.

The company is the ninth major US publisher to change its ways following a 2010 Rainforest Action Network study. While the other eight changed their practices immediately, Disney resisted until Ran members chained themselves to its gates last year. While Disney publicly dismissed that as a "publicity stunt," within a week top executives had flown to Ran headquarters to negotiate. One activist said Disney had simply been blind to the problem. "Its arms are so long they often don't know what their hands are doing." (More Disney stories.)