The Guardian published a short piece about the FSC certification of Coillte, yesterday in Eco Soundings (30 April 2008).

 PHOTO: Wally Menne

The description of Coillte’s operations is spot on: “more than a million acres of pesticide-laden, monocultural and exotic Sitka spruce plantations”.

Timber hitch

Coillte, the Irish state forestry company, has impacted on many a wild Irish bog, mountain and wetland, including from planting in the last few years more than a million acres of pesticide-laden, monocultural and exotic Sitka spruce plantations. What is as dismal as the trees, though, is that this “green desert” was certified by the Soil Association and the Forest Stewardship Council as “sustainable forestry”. Now the Irish are revolting. “We call on the Soil Association and FSC to immediately withdraw this abomination of a certificate, and we call on all environmentalists everywhere to help us in our struggle,” says a group writing to Eco Soundings and calling itself the Irish Environmental and Social Stakeholders. More at fsc-watch.org