A few weeks ago, FSC-Watch reported that the Swedish Society for Nature conservation (SSNC) had made a formal complaint to FSC about SCA’s logging operations in Northern Sweden. We’ve also raised concerns about WWF’s close relationships with logging companies.

WWF, it seems, is getting very cosy with SCA. In September 2007, WWF and SCA Hygienesigned a £10 million marketing deal allowing SCA to put WWF’s panda logo on its packs of Velvet toilet tissue.

Last week, SCA announced that WWF had ranked the company “top in this year’s assessment of the sustainability reports of European paper companies”. Last year, WWF announced that “SCA Tissue, the producer of such brands as Danke, Edet, Zewa, Cosy and Velvet, is the only surveyed company that is able to ensure that wood fibres used in its products don’t come from poorly-managed forests. This manufacturer also promotes the highest environmental and social standards in forest management.”

Here’s one of SSNC’s photographs of SCA’s operations in northern Sweden. An example of what SCA, FSC and WWF describe as well managed.

WWF and SCA both use FSC as the standard to judge whether or not forests are “well managed”. In its Sustainability Report from 2006, SCA writes: “Responsible use of wood: SCA’s forests are certified according to FSC, a strict international standard.” Meanwhile, in itsPaper Scorecard, WWF addresses “Responsible use of natural resources by promoting use of post-consumer recycled fibre and virgin fibre from well-managed FSC-certified forests as preferred fibre sources.” The similarities between SCA’s claims and WWF’s Scorecard are obvious. SCA uses recycled fibre for some of its products, but where it uses virgin fibre FSC doesn’t appear to be able to guarantee anything very much.

SCA recently launched a “Young Nature Photographer of the Year” competition, in association with WWF. If we thought anyone at SSNC were young enough to enter, FSC-Watch would encourage them to send in the photograph below – not that they’d stand any chance of winning the competition, but maybe someone at WWF might see what the logging operations of one of their favourite companies actually look like.

FSC-Watch looks forward to posting WWF’s explanation of why it continues its partnership with SCA and why it allows SCA to use the panda logo to help greenwash SCA’s destructive logging operations in Sweden.