ACTION ALERT
The Merits of Certified Forestry:
Good Intentions Betray Gabon, African Rainforest
10/10/97
OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
The slippery slope of "certified forestry" is explored by Rainforest
Action Network, as they express concern over logging of 518,000 acres
of primary forest in and around the Lope Reserve in the former French
colony of Gabon. Certified forestry offers consumers and
environmental groups the ability to separate forest products derived
from properly managed logging and those from careless habitat
destruction. The danger is that such promising advances in
sustainable forestry will be used as an excuse to log virtually all
remaining virgin forests. And once logged, however sensitively and
carefully, a primary forest is irrevocably changed. While certainly
certified forestry offers the best hope to reform a hopelessly
unsustainable forest product industry worldwide, it is critical that
distinctions be made between forests that will be preserved in
perpetuity in a natural state as "ecological cores" and those that
will be sustainably managed as certified, natural forests. A healthy
forest ecosystem would be composed of both, in spatial configurations
and relative proportions sufficient to maintain ecosystem
functionality on a particular landscape. Some ancient forest
wildernesses are too sacred and important ecologically for logging of
any sort.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Good Intentions Betray Gabon Rainforest
Source: Rainforest Action Network September Action Alert
Status: Distribute freely for non-commercial use with accreditation
Date: September 11, 1997
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 16:19:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Julio Feferman ranweaver@ran.org
Rainforest Action Network
Good Intentions Betray Gabon Rainforest
An African rainforest that is home to scores of endangered species,
including the rare lowland gorilla, is about to be logged mercilessly
- with the approval of the world's largest certifier of "sustainable"
timber.
The French company Leroy Gabon plans to log on over 518,000 acres of
primary forest in and around the Lope Reserve in the former French
colony of Gabon. Leroy Gabon and its parent company Isoroy, owned by
the German conglomerate Glunz AG, will cut and export the tropical
softwood okoume, primarily for European market plywood.
This logging is about to begin with the blessing of an organization
that should instead be preventing it. The Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC) was established in 1993 to help ensure the protection of the
world's remaining primary forests through timber certification
programs. The FSC accredits auditors around the world, who in turn
examine logging operations and determine if they can be called
"certified." Principle 9 of the FSC guidelines indicates that to be
considered "certified," a logging operation must not destroy primary
forest. Yet the FSC-approved certifier, SGS, has given Leroy the green
light to log, even though much of the planned logging will take place
in primary forest. At the same time, the FSC's own evaluation report
for the project concedes that it violates other fundamental standards.
One of the most immediate consequences of Leroy's logging is "the
construction of many roads which give access to illegal hunters,"
according to environmental watchdog Friends of the Earth. Giuseppe
Vassallo of the Panda/Milano Rainforest Action Group confirms this
fear, pointing out that similar logging operations in Gabon have
caused a rapid increase in poaching in previously "remote and
uninhabited zones." Gorillas and chimpanzees are killed for their
meat, to be sold as far away as South Africa, and for their heads and
hands, still fashioned into souvenirs.
The approval process for Leroy Gabon has been clouded by sloppy
accounting and conflict of interest from the very beginning. Even
though FSC rules require a certification program to be independent
from the rest of the forest industry, SGS has other divisions that
stand to profit from contracts with governments and multinational
corporations. Despite this, FSC Executive Director Tim Synnott
dismissed international outrage over the certification, embracing the
Leroy logging as "good forest management."
The FSC's endorsement of this disaster damages the overall credibility
of sustainable logging. Consumers and environmental groups depend on
certification programs to separate properly managed logging from
careless habitat destruction. "Certifying operations that do not meet
[FSC] standards is a betrayal of that trust," Friends of the Earth and
the German rainforest protection group Rettet den Regenwald (Save the
Rainforest) told the FSC in a recent letter.
Please act now to make sure that certification saves rainforests.
What You Can Do!
Unless we act now, Leroy Gabon will go forward with its plans to log
thousands of acres of primary forest. Gorillas, chimps, and other
species don't have to die so that Leroy can make cheap plywood. The
FSC needs pressure from concerned citizens to reconsider its decision
to allow the Leroy Gabon timber cut to proceed unchecked.
Write to the FSC's U.S. representative, and let her know that it is
unacceptable to give a seal of approval to a logging operation that
destroys primary forest. You can also e-mail the following letter
directly from our web site:
http://www.ran.org/info_center/aa/aa131.html .
Here is a sample letter:
Ms. Jamison Ervin
Forest Stewardship Council
RD 1, Box 182
Waterbury, VT 05676
Dear Ms. Ervin,
I am writing to express my dismay over the Forest Stewardship
Council's approval of the Leroy logging concession in Gabon, an
operation that independent agencies show will destroy primary forest.
By allowing the certification of this cutting, FSC is giving its
blessing to a project that will imperil endangered species, including
the lowland gorilla. Calling such a venture "sustainable" lets
deforestation pass as environmental action. The FSC should withdraw
its support from Leroy in its current form. I urge you to pass this
information on to the FSC board, and to take a stand as FSC's U.S.
representative to end this wasteful, destructive venture.
Sincerely,