Orwellian: (Pertaining to the author, George Orwell) “Connotes an attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past, including the “unperson” – a person whose past existence is expunged from the public record and memory, practiced by modern repressive governments.”
Plantations
FSC’s proposed change of rules on plantations “may be hard-to-stomach”
A revealing article posted by leading website on rainforest issues, mongabay.com raises concerns about proposed changes to FSC’s rules, which threaten to open up the flood gates of FSC certification of plantations which have recently been established on former areas of natural forests. At present, FSC prohibits certification of plantations that are on land cleared of forest after 1994.
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.
Armed security force of FSC-certified company kills villager in Brazil
Two years ago, a peasant was murdered by guards of the company Vallourec and Mannesman in Brazil. At the time, V&M’s plantations were certified for FSC by SGS-Qualifor.
FSC Friday #3: How FSC and Greenpeace help undermine the use of recycled tissue paper
In August 2009, Greenpeace announced that it had stopped its “Kleercut” campaign against Kimberly-Clark. “Today, ancient forests like the Boreal Forest have won,” announced Richard Brooks, Greenpeace Canada Forest Campaign Coordinator. “This new relationship between Kimberly-Clark and Greenpeace will promote forest conservation, responsible forest management, and recycled fiber as far and wide as possible.”
Uganda: Villagers petition lands minister to stop FSC-certified company from evicting them
On 25 May 2009, SGS Qualifor issued an FSC certificate to New Forest Company for its plantations in Uganda. Less than two months later, more than 10,000 villagers petitioned the lands minister to stop New Forest Company from evicting them from their homes. They accused armed groups of beating people, abducting them and destroying their crops and houses. Below are two articles about New Forest Company, one from the Ugandan newspaper,New Vision and one from World Rainforest Movement.
FSC Ireland – the latest round in the decade-long fiasco
The following has been submitted by the Irish Environmental and Social Stakeholders.
FSC-Watch 