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”.
South Africa
FSC allows continued slaughter of wild baboons in South African plantations
The following press release has been issed by South Africa-based NGO, Geasphere.
The decision by the FSC Complaints Panel not to uphold the complaint against the mass slaughter of wildlife in certified plantations in South Africa appears to mean that the FSC’s complaint procedure, though recently revised, maintains its 100% record of never having resulted in the cancellation of a certificate as a result of a formal complaint.
FSC “Greenwashing” Forest Exploitation in Africa
On the eve of its 2011 General Assembly, FSC is facing a barrage of criticism as a result of failing to deal with the multiple problems that it has been presented with over the last decade. The growing sense amongst members, and especially NGOs, is that time has run out. Another of FSC’s key NGO supporters has already recently quit.
Formal complaint to FSC about killings of baboons by FSC-certified companies in South Africa
FSC Friday #5: FSC ‘Frosty’ Friday also World Eco-debt Day
FSC-Watch received this from Wally Menne, a member of Timberwatch in South Africa, questioning what, exactly, FSC is celebrating on “FSC Friday”:
FSC Certification of plantations in South Africa criticised
In November 2008, just before the FSC General Assembly, Global Forest Coalition released a report criticising plantation certification in South Africa. The report’s authors, Wally Menne and Blessing Karumbidza of The Timberwatch Coalition, asked the question “Can the FSC forest certification model be used to demonstrate sustainability in large-scale agrofuel crop production?” Their answer is a resounding “no”.
More than 3,600 people tell FSC to stop certifying industrial tree plantations
More than 3,600 organisations and individuals have signed on to World Rainforest Movement’s letter to FSC members demanding that FSC should stop certifying industrial tree plantations. FSC-Watch looks forward to seeing FSC’s response to the letter – preferably a decision to stop certifying environmentally and socially destructive monocultures. Today, WRM released the following press release:
FSC: Stop certifying monoculture tree plantations
This month’s World Rainforest Movement Bulletin focusses on the International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations on 21 September. The Bulletin explains why a campaign against industrial tree plantations is important, includes materials for campaigns as well as news and analysis from around the world about struggles against plantations.
Wildlife slaughter and fires take corporate gloss off FSC General Assembly
FSC’s forthcoming 3-yearly General Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa, looks like it will be a farcical exercise in corporate-sponsored public relations, whilst the disparity between what the organisation likes to think it is doing and what it is actually doing continues to grow.
The ‘many wrongs’ of FSC in South Africa
In the following contribution, Philip Owen of Southern African NGO GeaSphere, reports on the ecological devastation caused by the FSC certified industrial plantations in South Africa. The article illustrates the problems in one particular site, certified by the ‘Soil Association’ WoodMark, which overall has certified nearly 500,000 hectares of plantations in South Africa. Readers will not miss the irony that one of the major impacts has been on the soils of the region, and will no doubt question how such an operation could be certified by an organisation which purports to be concerned with the conservation of the world’s soil. A further 1 million hectares have been certified by the now discredited SGS-Qualifor.
FSC-Watch 