B.C. forestry firms slam U.S. chain's wood ban
Copyright 2000, The Globe and Mail
August 9, 2000
WENDY STUECK British Columbia Bureau
Vancouver -- Some British Columbia forestry companies, already under intense pressure from environmental groups, are seething over an announcement by a U.S.-based home improvement chain that they say unfairly singles out a contested region of the province.
Lowe's Companies Inc. of Wilkesboro, N.C., plans to phase out the purchase of wood products from endangered forests and has already put into effect a ban on wood coming from the Great Bear Rainforest, a region of about seven million hectares on the B.C. coast that is home to large tracts of untouched rainforest and the largest population of white Kermode, or Spirit bears, in the world.
Bill Dumont, chief forester with Vancouver-based Western Forest Products, said Lowe's policy mimics earlier initiatives by competitor Home Depot Inc., but is less balanced than Home Depot's approach. He said moves by retailers to single out specific regions can harm efforts by forestry companies and environmentalists to work together, such as the Coast Forest Conservation Initiative now underway.
"Those efforts are fragile, and they are not helped by this kind of behaviour," Mr. Dumont said.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, heralded the Lowe's announcement as a signal that consumers and retailers will no longer tolerate unsustainable logging practices.
"This is a banner day for endangered forest protection, certainly in B.C. and around the world," said Michael Brune, old-growth campaign director with the Rainforest Action Network. The San Francisco group has been working to stop logging in endangered forests and helped Lowe's develop its new procurement policy.
"With this policy, we believe Lowe's may have signalled the beginning of the end of logging in old-growth forests."
Under the policy, Lowe's plans to phase out the purchase of wood products from endangered forests as those areas are identified and mapped.
As well, Lowe's plans to give preferred status to products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), although it will consider other standards, like the ISO and CSA systems.
But the biggest noise around its announcement came with the singling out of the Great Bear Rainforest -- even though the company says less than half of one per cent of its total lumber purchases come from the region. The wood that Lowe's does buy in B.C. comes primarily from the Interior and northern parts of the province.
That means the immediate economic impact of the new policy may be slight, but industry representatives worry that it could spell trouble down the road.
"The immediate impact is nominal, but we are concerned that as a large company, and as an opinion leader, that they will create a domino effect, and that could lead to real hardship," said Tom Tevlin, president of industry lobby group Forest Alliance of B.C.
Mr. Tevlin said the industry has to do a better job of communicating the steps it has taken to improve logging practices.