Slovakia – the ‘race to the bottom’ for FSC’s certification standards

The certification by the Soil Association in 2001 of Presov Forest District (PFD, part of the state forestry service) in Slovakia, has always been controversial.

Local environmental groups, such as WOLF/Friends of the Earth Slovakia have long argued that PFD was in gross non-compliance with the FSC’s Principles and Criteria. They provided detailed, Principle-by-Principle critiques of PFD’s operations, both before and after the certificate was issued, detailing multiple failures to comply with the P&C. These were evidently ignored by the Soil Association, who issued the certificate, and maintained it until 2006.

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Illegal logging in Papua New Guinea: who do we believe? Greenpeace, SGS, or the World Bank?

In August 2006, the World Bank reported that the level of illegal logging in Papua New Guinea could be as much as be 70 percent.

A mere two months later, the FSC accredited certifier SGS maintains that all log exports from PNG are fully legal – and have been for the last 12 years. The article below is from the PNG newspaper The National, which happens to be owned by Rimbunan Hijau, one of PNGs largest loggers.

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Laos: FSC certified timber is illegal

By Chris Lang. Published in WRM Bulletin 110, September 2006.

When a forestry operation is certified under the Forest Stewardship Council system, it should mean we can all relax in the knowledge that the forests are reasonably well managed. Unfortunately, it seems, this is not the case. SmartWood, an FSC accredited certifier, recentlyforestry operations forestry operations in Laos which are producing timber that is illegal under the Lao Forestry Law.

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Ecuadorian groups challenge certificates and quit national FSC initiative

Some of the founding members of the national Ecuadorian FSC group, CEFOVE, have announced their withdrawal from the initiative. The withdrawal of Fundación Altropico (and in particular Jaime Levy, who played an important role in the setting up of CEFOVE), as well as the Federation Awá and two individual members indicates the severity of the problems they have subsequently encountered. Their withdrawal is due to both the recent FSC certification of Endesa-Botrosa, and because of the general policy of CEFOVE.

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