No paper sold by Boise in Australia is sourced from US mills... Boise offers customers a range of paper from which they can choose. This includes Australian paper...

There is a range of photo copy paper including:

• Reflex - Australian made;
• Contact Plus - Australian made;
• Double A - non Australian 100% plantation and elemental chlorine free;
• e-copy - 50% recycled fibre, 50% plantation fibre, totally chlorine free, ISO14001 environmental endorsement, ISO9001 Quality endorsed;
• Xerox green wrap - 60% recycled pulp sourced from post consumer waste, 40%
• sustainable managed plantations, Australian made using Australian waste;
• Renew 80 - 80 % recycled copy paper, Australian made;
• Renew - 100% recycled copy paper, Australian made.
Other paper products vary³⁵.

36David Shirer, Executive General Manager Corporate & Investor Relations PaperlinX Limited, email 31/01/03

Boise's Connections to Paperlinx

Both Blue Star and Boise are customers for various products supplied by different parts of our business³⁶.

37www.reflex.com.au/ about_make_maryvale.aspx www.reflex.com.au/ about_make_shoalhaven.aspx www.reflex.com.au/ about_make_wesburne.aspx 38www.australianpaper.forests.org.au/ aboutsite.htm#woodpulp 39Paperlinx, 2001. Fibre Supply. 2 p

Pulp and Paper Sources Used by Paperlinx

Paperlinx has an agreement with the Victorian State Government to gain access to native forest fibre until the year 2030. Most of this is supplied from the Central Highlands region of Victoria, the southern Gippsland region of Victoria and the Strzelecki ranges³⁸.

In total, around 56% of PaperlinX's fibre demands are met by waste paper and Australian plantations. The remaining 44% comes from international sources and sawmilling residues from native regrowth forests...³⁹

40Paperlinx, 2001. Fibre supply. 2 p. 41www.australianpaper.forests.org.au/ 42Friends Of The Gippsland Bush Inc., October 1998. Response To Final Report: Gippsland Pilot Study - Timber Harvesting (Coupe) Plan Certification - August 1998.

Australia

All of the harvesting carried out in State Forests is supervised by the State Department of Natural Resources and Environment, in accordance with the Victorian Code of Forest Practices for Timber Production, Forest Management Plans and Regional Forest Agreements...For example, PaperlinX's Maryvale Mill's hardwood fibre resources are drawn largely from the Victorian Central Highlands...⁴⁰

Environmental problems associated with logging in the state of Victoria to supply Paperlinx are well documented⁴¹ and include destruction of cool temperate rainforest and removal of old growth trees under the guise of plantation management.

Present clear felling techniques highlight the need for enforcement of protection laws pertaining to retention of native vegetation and soil and the right to maintain access to quality water for all those who access it. Problems in the industry will not disappear by asserting that accredited foresters have attained standards that will achieve the requirements as prescribed in the Code of Practice ... [Friends of Gippsland Bush] have monitored the outcomes of industry operations from 1996 to present date. . . Our consensus is that standards of operations over this time have declined rather than improved. A demonstrated brazenness in the industry openly defies stipulated requirements of The Code and State and Local Planning Ordinances relating to timber harvesting procedures ... ⁴²

43Norton, T.W. and May, S.A. 1994. Towards sustainable forestry in Australian temperate eucalypt forests; ecological impacts and priorities for conservation, research and management. pp. 10-30 in Ecology and Sustainability: Southern Temperate Ecosystems. eds T.W. Norton and S.R. Dovers. CSIRO, Australia. 133p. 44Lindenmeyer, D.B. 1994. Timber harvesting in the montane Ash Forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria: impacts at different spatial scales on arboreal marsupials and the implications for ecologically sustainable forest use. pp 31-50 in Ecology and Sustainability: Southern Temperate Ecosystems. eds T.W. Norton and S.R. Dovers. CSIRO, Australia. 133p.

This view is also upheld by the scientific community: Conclusions Of This Study:

1. Intensive and extensive clearfelling practices in the montane ash forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria are likely to have a highly detrimental impact on a range of species of arboreal marsupials and may result in substantial reductions in populations of these animals.
2. Losses of biodiversity that may be associated with present forestry practices indicate that such activities may not be ecologically sustainable in the long-term. Hence, the intensive and extensive use of clearfelling operations could be direct contravention of the broad Federal and Victorian State Government policy goals that underpin the concept of ecologically sustainable forest use⁴³.

The results of the various studies completed to date indicate that the present management regimes used in the Central Highlands of Victoria in which stands of montane ash forests are clearfelled on a 50-120 year rotation, will have a highly detrimental impact on populations of arboreal marsupials. Such activities may threaten the long-term persistence of several species of arboreal marsupials within wood production ash forests. Because of the effects of present logging practices on the long-term conservation of biodiversity, there may be conflicts between some of the overarching objectives of State and Federal initiatives that are designed to achieve ecologically sustainable resource use⁴⁴.

45Paperlinx, 2001. Fibre Supply. 2 p. 46Rowlands, Arnold, environmental representative (Tasmanian Conservation Trust North West Branch) Australian Paper Burnie Mill Community Advisory Panel, pers. Comm. 47Andrew Jackson, Group Manager Environment Safety & Health, email 16/03/03 48Paperlinx, 2001. Paperlinx and recycled papers. Responsible reuse of fibre resources. www.reflex.com.au/PDF/ Reflex_PaperlinXrecycled.pdf 49http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/ 1997/286/286p11b.htm

Paperlinx literature claims that the feedstock used in its Tasmanian production facilities are (in the case of Wesley Vale) plantation softwood and hardwood and (in the case of Burnie) the "main" source is imported pulp⁴⁵.

According to sources within the company the Wesley Vale mill occasionally supplies the Burnie mill with wood pulp from "regrowth" (ie native forests). As late as 2001 Burnie Mill staff were unable to refute claims that the plant was still making use of native rainforest species including blackwood and sassafras, possibly up to 5% of feedstock⁴⁶. Communications with Paperlinx indicate that feedstock used in Tasmania includes native forest fibre⁴⁷.

At present, much of the paper supplied to Boise in Australia by Paperlinx and marketed as recycled is comprised of pre-consumer waste⁴⁸, i.e. printers' off-cuts and other sources such as cotton waste. This paper has not been used by consumers and is virgin fibre. It is possible that as little as 10% of the recycled fibre used in Renew 100 for example, is post-consumer waste⁴⁹ (i.e. recycled paper collected from offices and other sources where it has already been used).

50Ian Wightwick, General Manager Paperlinx, response to questions raised by shareholders at the Paperlinx Annual general Meeting, November, 2000. 51Paperlinx, 2001. Fibre Supply. 2 p.

Paperlinx Imported Pulp and Paper

Our pulp sourcing comes from Canada, 2 different types of pulp from NZ, eucalypt plantation pulp from Thailand, 2 major suppliers of eucalypt plantation from South America. We buy from APRIL, Asia Pulp Resources Ltd...

As far as paper is concerned, yes, we do buy paper from AP&P, which as you correctly say is financially distressed. That paper comes from a mill called Tilli Kinya, which in turn obtains pulp from other AP&P locations...we are not harvesting anything from what could be classed as World Heritage type old growth forest⁵⁰.

Some fibre sourced internationally from reputable Companies

PaperlinX does its best to ensure that when it must purchase pulp internationally, it buys from reputable companies with sound environmental credentials. At present, our annual international purchases total about 180-200,000 tonnes and are sourced from countries such as New Zealand, Canada, South America, Indonesia and Thailand⁵¹.