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.
The timber may be certified: but is it sustainable?
The headline comes from a recent post on CIFOR’s Forest Blog. CIFOR is the Centre for International Forestry Research. The blog post is based on research by one of CIFOR’s scientists, Paolo Omar Cerutti, who was lead author of a recent paper published in Forest Policy and Economics: Legal vs. certified timber: Preliminary impacts of forest certification in Cameroon.
Clear-cuts for Ecotimber – more criticism of FSC, this time on German TV
On 14 February 2010, SWR, a German TV station broadcast a short film about FSC certification of clearcuts in Sweden.
“Latvia’s pulp fiction”: AlJazeera programme on FSC and destructive logging in Latvia
A programme this week on AlJazeera’s People and Power reports on destructive logging in Latvia – including the fact that FSC-certified Latvian timber is still on sale in the UK, despite the fact that the FSC certified was suspended on 16 July 2010.
A new film exposing FSC: ‘Sustainable on Paper’
A new film documents the problems with FSC. FSC-Watch will be posting several articles about this over the next few days. Meanwhile, here is FERN’s description of the film in EU Forest Watch, January 2011. Below that is a trailer for the film.
UPDATE: The full documentary is available here.
Formal complaint to FSC about killings of baboons by FSC-certified companies in South Africa
Uruguay: Tree plantation workers and agrotoxic spraying
A new report, published jointly by Rap-Al Uruguay and Rel-UITA looks at tree plantation workers and agrotoxic spraying. The research was carried out on plantations operated by FOSA (Forestal Oriental S.A.), a transnational company that is owned by UPM (formerly Botnia) and which is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
FSC certified company, Hancock, caught on film converting forest to plantations in the Strzezlicki Ranges, Australia
A new video about the Strzezlicki Ranges in Victoria, Australia reveals that FSC is failing to uphold its own standards, allowing destructive logging and conversion of native forest to exotic plantations.
FSC and logging of old-growth forests
On 28 September 2010, Ecological Internet issued the action alert below. So far, people from 69 countries have sent 3,654 protest emails – to join in, visit Ecological Internet’s website.
Swedish Society for Nature Conservation resigns from FSC Sweden
In June 2010, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation resigned from FSC Sweden. Two years ago, the SSNC left the board of FSC Sweden. As the largest environmental organisation in Sweden, SSNC’s resignation raises serious questions about the ability of FSC to implement its own standards.
FSC-Watch 