Geasphere the NGO working in South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland dedicated to the protection of ecological integrity, has released a new short video explaining why FSC’s certification of plantations in South Africa are in clear contravention of the FSC’s Principles and Criteria, and how the P&C themselves are defective in ensuring that FSC certifed timber is “environmentally appropriate”.

Taking us on a tour of some of the South African landscapes devastated by industrial plantations, the video explains how FSC’s Principle 10 is inadequate to ensure that certified plantations are not responsible for destruction of non-forest ecosystem, such as grasslands, even if these are more biodiverse than local forests. It shows how these plantations are also in contravention of FSC Principles 5,6, 9 and 10.

Whilst the film concentrates on South Africa, what it documents also applies to many other certified plantations around the world. FSC’s flawed policies on the certification of plantations, and its inability to ensure that its accredited certifiers are respecting the Principles and Criteria, are now causing active campaigning against the FSC system. FSC should realise that it’s time for fundamental reform.