B.C. Producers Seek Edge in New Home Depot Policy
8/31/99
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Title: B.C. Producers Seek Edge in New HOME DEPOT Policy
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 31, 1999
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, August 31, 1999 (ENS) - British
Columbia's producers of forest products are on track to meet The Home
Depot's new product procurement policy, said Forest Alliance Director
Dr. Patrick Moore. Forest Alliance is an forest industry association
based in Vancouver.
Last week the world's largest home improvement retailer announced it
will stop selling wood products from endangered forests and give
preference to certified wood by the year 2002.
Moore said that virtually every major forest company in B.C. is
already pursuing, or has achieved, some form of certification and that
this may provide a competitive edge for B.C. producers.
Home Depot has been the target of a worldwide activist campaign, with
a boycott, national advertising, regional protests, and stockholder
actions protesting Home Depot's sale of products made from the world's
tropical and temperate rainforests.
The Home Depot announcement has divided the environmental community.
Groups such as Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network of San
Francisco hailed the new policy, but other forest protectionists
expressed disappointment over the three year phase-out period. They
are still boycotting Home Depot until all wood products from
endangered forests are removed from the shelves.
Moore, a former Greenpeace executive director, now is a spokesman for
the B.C. industry group. "It is encouraging to see a major retailer
taking such a proactive stance to ensure its products are sourced
from sustainable forests," he said. "The Home Depot is sending a
strong signal to its vendors that it wants to get more certified wood
on its shelves and quickly."
"There is a lot of confusion around what The Home Depot means by
'endangered forests' because it's not a scientifically defined term.
But in the B.C. context, it seems clear that we have and continue to
take the necessary measures to ensure our forest are not endangered,"
said Moore.
"Compared to other jurisdictions, B.C.'s forest practices legislation
is among the strictest and most encompassing in the world - there is
no doubt we're world leaders in forest management " said Moore. "
In the last decade alone we've more than doubled our protected areas
and we now have sophisticated and inclusive democratic land use
planning processes that ensure the full range of social, environmental
and economic values are considered."
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999