CANADA (From news reports) -- The owner of Canada's largest forestry company has moved to openly take control of a massive pulp and paper empire spanning Asia, the Americas and Europe.

Jackson Wijaya currently owns dozens of pulp and paper mills across Canada, the U.S., Brazil and Europe under the Domtar Group -- formally known as Paper Excellence until it rebranded last month. Wijaya's intention to take direct control over Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), an Indonesian and Chinese-based multinational currently owned by his father, was confirmed in an official notice from the European Commission.

For years, Domtar and APP have repeatedly denied any relationship with one another. Wijaya's now open intention to control the two companies has raised questions among environmental watchdogs that have long claimed APP has exerted hidden control over Canadian forestry assets.

The announcement comes less than a week after Canada and Indonesia signed a free trade pact.

"It's a concern to us that they were denying it, and ultimately it's proven to be true," said Priyanka Vittal, legal counsel for Greenpeace Canada.

"So what other things are they lying about? What are their motivations? It doesn't really create a trusting relationship with this company."

A Domtar spokesperson said Wijaya's father had appointed him to be the sole beneficiary and owner of APP as part of his "succession planning."

"This appointment by his father was recently made and Jackson could not have foreseen the timing since this is the wish and decision of his father," said Jennifer Johnson, Domtar's vice-president of global communications.

"Importantly, Mr. Wijaya will not hold any leadership position within APP, and APP and Domtar will continue to operate as they always have -- as distinct entities, each with its own management teams and governance structures."

The growth of a forestry empire

APP has long been a target of environmental watchdogs over claims it is responsible for widespread deforestation, human rights abuses and conflicts with Indigenous communities. The company abandoned its U.S. operations in 2001 after it failed to pay creditors and defaulted on US$13.9 billion in loans -- a record sum.

Less than a decade later, Paper Excellence emerged in Canada, and over the intervening years, began to buy up old mills across the Prairies, British Columbia and Nova Scotia.

By the time it rebranded in October, Paper Excellence had made a quick succession of unprecedented multibillion-dollar acquisitions, consolidating control over industry giants Domtar and Resolute Forest Products. The latter deal gave the company control of over 22 million hectares of Canadian forests and made Paper Excellence the largest forestry company in North America.

Canada's Competition Bureau has repeatedly investigated and cleared Paper Excellence's acquisitions. It's not clear how the bureau will respond to Wijaya's move to control both Domtar and APP. Glacier Media has reached out to the bureau for comment and is waiting to hear back.

"A huge concern is how the Canadian government regulators essentially handed over ownership to a notoriously private company that operates in an opaque way, [and] who's now directly linked to a company that's had a poor past environmental record," Vittal said.

Under investigation, both companies deny links

The expansion of Paper Excellence's North American forestry empire caught the attention of lawmakers in the spring of 2023 after a journalistic investigation into the Richmond-based company's overseas ties.

That investigation -- which included Glacier Media and its media partners with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) -- revealed numerous links between what was then Paper Excellence and APP.

As part of their initial investigation, ICIJ partners interviewed former employees and reviewed leaked emails suggesting staff worked freely between Paper Excellence and APP.

In several cases, communications show APP employees providing key strategic analyses in a Paper Excellence application to Chinese regulators.

Mac Anderson, a former employee who ran a Paper Excellence fibre supply company in B.C., described reporting to officials in Shanghai. Another former APP employee said pulp Paper Excellence exported from Canada acted as "a feeder for the Chinese machine."