FSC-Watch received this from Wally Menne, a member of Timberwatch in South Africa, questioning what, exactly, FSC is celebrating on “FSC Friday”:

FSC ‘Frosty’ Friday also World Eco-debt Day

The FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) has declared today “FSC FRIDAY” as part of a campaign to boost its reputation in the face of growing criticism of its ‘greenwashing’ of unsustainable logging of the world’s rapidly diminishing forests, as well as its efforts to certify vast new areas of socially and ecologically destructive tree plantations as “responsibly managed forests”! (see www.fsc-watch.org)

It is abundantly clear that the driving force behind the environmental plagues troubling humanity – in particular Climate Change – is little more than old fashioned greed, manifesting itself in the form of the gross overconsumption of energy and material goods by the wealthy of the world. ‘Certification’ as practised by the FSC, amongst other organisations, serves merely to absolve the guilt that should otherwise bring people to change their wasteful ways.

It should also be obvious that excessive consumption by some will inevitably cause others to have access to less, and this inequity is being encouraged and endorsed through marketing campaigns of organisations like the FSC and others, that are pushing greater consumption (and production) of ‘responsible’ soy, palm oil and ethanol derived from sugarcane!

The Ecological Debt owed by industrialised countries to former colonies in the South continues to grow as Northern use of global resources expands. More and more developing country land is being appropriated by multinational corporations either for food or fuel crop production, or to plant vast exotic tree plantations in the name of mitigating climate change.

These so called ‘carbon sink forests’ that destroy natural habitat, displace communities, and steal local water resources from their rightful owners – people, biodiversity and ecosystems – are also being certified as a way to justify greater energy consumption and therefore increased CO2 emissions by those that have historically taken far more than their rightful share.

See Recession barely dents ‘eco-debt’.

The FSC started life as a do-gooder organisation back in 1993, but has since seemingly been steadily transformed into just another business corporation, with a few deluded ‘corporate-type’ NGOs blindly clinging to the sinking ship. One of these is WWF which has become known as a partner of large business organisations that are also major climate change culprits, such as plantation and paper company Mondi, and the diamond mining monster, De Beer’s. The WWF (SA) membership list includes the likes of Monsanto, BHP Billiton, and Shell Energy, and tells a grim tale of how deeply indebted WWF is to its corporate sponsors.

In the final analysis, unashamedly accepting money derived from resource exploitation means that BINGOs (Big International NGOs) like the WWF are in the same corner as the governments and corporations that are so deeply indebted to our Earth.

Using organisations such as FSC to present fake assurances of sustainability to the teeming masses of gullible consumers living in countries that go into ecological debt long before September 25th every year, is a false solution!

So on this Frosty FSC Ecodebt Friday (Frosty = unpleasant, miserable, unwanted) FSC really has nothing to celebrate.