Launching an appeal to help save Sweden’s remaining old-growth forests, the NGO networkSkydda Skogen (Protect the Forest) has said that “major violations against the FSC standard are made by FSC-certified forest companies in Sweden.” In its website, Skydda Skogen goes on to say:
Author: FSC-Watch
Update on complaint to FSC about SmartWood certification of Rimbunan Hijau subsidiary
FSC-Watch recently received this update on the PNG Eco-Forestry Forum’s complaint to FSC over the Smartwood certification of Rimbunan Hijau subsidiary, Ernslaw One:
FSC back-tracking on pesticides; Board caves in to industry pressure?
As with the development of many other FSC policies, the finalisation of its policy on the use of pesticides has been long and complicated. But at least it seemed to have come to a fairly clear result, when a new policy, and clear guidelines for implementing it, were adopted by the FSC Board at the end of 2005. But this has again all been thrown into doubt, following the most recent FSC Board meeting, which was attended and heavily lobbied by an industry delegation.
On the road to nowhere? The dangers of certifying ‘hoped-for’ improvements in the Czech Republic
When Soil Association WoodMark re-certified the 10,000 hectares of Masarykův les Křtiny (ŠLP), a State-owned forest in the Czech Republic in 2004 (which had first been certified in 1997), one of the notable features of the Public Summary report was the number of times in which the phrase “to be implemented immediately on certification” was used in relation to the numerous Corrective Action Requests issued. In other words, SLP had not actually achieved whatever standards WoodMark used to assess them (there was no national FSC Standard in the Czech Republic at the time of the assessment), but would hopefully achieve them afterwards.
WWF, Tropical Forest Trust, and Perhutani: more unanswered questions
Some readers of FSC-Watch will no doubt have been surprised to learn that the UK-based NGO Soil Association has, through it’s subsidiary certification body WoodMark, started the process of certifying parts of the notorious Indonesian plantation company Perhutani.
WWF and certification of Danzer: all a foregone conclusion?
In September 2006, WWF and the large German tropical logging company Danzer issued the joint press release below, announcing Danzer’s intention to obtain FSC certification. The announcement stated that Danzer’s operations in the Republic of Congo were ‘scheduled’ to be certified in 2008, whilst the larger concessions in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) would be certified in 2010.
Irish Environmental and Social Groups Unite to Demand Removal of Coillte Certificate
The following was submitted by the Irish Environmental and Social Stakeholders’ Alliance:
Reforming the FSC by Competitive Tendering
One the major structural problems that seems to underlie much of what is going wrong in the FSC is that contracts for certification assessments are arranged directly between logging companies and the FSC’s accredited certifiers. Because of this – and especially because the award of a certificate will ensure future profits for the certifiers from monitoring and re-assessments – certifiers have a strong financial incentive to award certificates even when the logging company does not comply with the FSC’s Principles and Criteria.
South African NGOs renew call for suspension of plantation certificates: “massive cost to the environment”
Saved or deleted? FSC certified forest destruction visible from space
One of the problems with the FSC is that the public is almost always reliant on the FSC certifiers’ own reports to understand what is going on in any certfied area of forest – and, as we know, the certifiers have a vested economic interest in telling us the best and maybe, well, glossing over the worst. But in the interests of greater transparency, FSC-Watch can now bring you, thanks to GoogleEarth, a satellite’s view of some of the operations of FSC’s biggest certified company, Tembec, in Quebec, Canada (see below).
FSC-Watch 