The US-based ‘e-activist’ network Ecological Internet has launched a letter-writing campaign aimed at Greenpeace, asking them to withdraw their support for FSC-certified ‘ancient forest logging’. The campaign demands that Greenpeace publishes a report on ‘problematic’ FSC certificates, which is believed to have been under investigation by the green group for many months. The new campaign is specifically directed at Grant Rosoman, of Greenpeace New Zealand, who is asked to resign as Chair of FSC’s international Board. Greenpeace’s forest activists worldwide are also being targetted, and are likely to received many thousands of protest e-mails.
Author: FSC-Watch
FSC’s new ‘Global Strategy’: a recipe for disaster?
The FSC is currently consulting on the preparation of a new ‘Global Strategy’ that will guide the organisation for the next 5 years (the strategy is, we learn, open for public consultation only until June 15th although, given that many FSC stakeholders seem to have found out about this only very late in the day, we hope that FSC will extend this deadline). A full copy of the draft strategy is available for download at the end of this posting.
Study explodes myth of ‘sustainable logging’ in Amazonian rainforests
A little-known study that first appeared last year shows what some environmentalists have been saying for years – that most timber exploitation in the Amazon is not ‘sustainable’, and does not prevent deforestation but actually promotes it. The new findings will likely lead to calls for tighter controls or even complete prohibition on ‘certification’ of logging operations in such regions.
FSC’s complaints procedures in chaos
One of the essential components of a credible certification scheme is that there must be some kind of mechanism such that stakeholders who dispute decisions about certification standards, specific certificates or other matters, can challenge them and seek redress. FSC’s handling of complaints has been abysmal for many years, but now it seems to be in total disarray. Apart from anything else, FSC is probably not currently compliant with the requirements of ISEAL, the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance, to which the FSC is affiliated.
Bureau Veritas: banned from Cameroon, but free to operate next door in Gabon
Earlier this year, FSC-Watch reported on the curious circumstances surrounding the ‘suspension’ of Bureau Veritas’s (BV) accreditation by FSC for, as yet unrevealed, problems with the certification of the Cameroonian rainforest logging company, Wijma. We now learn that, whilst Bureau Veritas remains prohibited from carrying out FSC certifications in Cameroon, it has just started the process of trying certify the massive logging operations of Rougier, in neighbouring Gabon.
FSC: 10 unanswered questions. And one new one.
One of things that we at FSC-Watch worry about is that the FSC seems to have such a poor memory – so poor, in fact, that it keeps making the same mistakes over and over again. So, to help it along, we are issuing here a list of some of the questions we have asked over the last few months, and that have never been answered. And we have an important new question too.
FSC in Russia: ‘sustainable forest management’ or simply money and politics?
FSC-Watch has been sent the following article by Svetlana Alekseeva, Chief Editor of “Forest Certification”. It raises a number of serious questions about the motivation of various ‘stakeholders’ involved in FSC certifications in Russia.
WWF decides that biggest tropical logging certificate was not such a good thing after all
Back in January, FSC-Watch reported that the largest FSC certified tropical logging operation (Barama, in Guyana) had had its certificate suspended. One of the interesting aspects of this was that WWF had been working closely with the company for some time, providing technical advice and helping the company to get its certificate. This was clearly an embarrassment for WWF, who had only 9 months earlier breathlessly exclaimed that the certificate was a “record-setting accomplishment for tropical forest conservation in South America“. In February, WWF US’s senior forest programme officer Bruce Cabarle joined representatives of Barama in an urgent meeting with FSC’s Executive Director in an effort to have the certificate reinstated (which the FSC Secretariat rightly resisted).
WoodMark pioneers ‘continuous deterioration’ certification in Ireland
Finally, as the FSC’s inspectors arrive at its doors for its annual accreditation inspection, Soil Association WoodMark has produced the long-awaited and overdue report of its 2006 surveillance of controversial Irish state forestry company, Coillte.
FSC Certified operations fast losing credibility in Australia
This posting has been submitted by Anthony Amis, Friends of the Earth Melbourne, Australia.
FSC-Watch 