Seal of Approval for Logging
6/23/97
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Headline: Seal of Approval for Logging
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Date: 6/23/97
Copyright 1997 by Christian Science Monitor
For many environmentalists, the key to protecting the
world's forests sits in a 25,000-square-foot warehouse in
Berkeley, Calif.
Owned by a company called EcoTimber, the warehouse holds
hundreds of thousands of board feet of ``certified''
lumber. The wood has come from forests that independent
environmental and forestry groups have concluded are
logged in an environmentally sound and sustainable way.
``We're sort of like the first organic grocery stores that
opened in the late '60s and early '70s,'' says EcoTimber's
Jason Grant.
Even as world leaders at the United Nations debate whether
to call for a treaty to protect forests, many
environmentalists find themselves in the unusual position
of opposing the move. They believe operations like
EcoTimber and other independent efforts already under
way will be more effective.
``In our view, negotiating a treaty is a cop-out of the
most extreme nature,'' says the National Wildlife
Federation's Barbara Bramble. ``It will simply give
countries an excuse to ... not take any concrete actions
now.''
The certification movement was started in 1989 by the
Rainforest Alliance, a nonprofit environmental group based
in New York. Richard Donovan, director of the alliance's
``Smartwood'' certification program, says people at first
thought, ``What you're doing is crazy.''
``By the end of this calendar year ... there will be as
many as 25 million acres certified worldwide; there are
now certifications occurring in over 15 countries, and
five groups doing the certifying,'' Mr. Donovan says.
He acknowledges that 25 million acres is the equivalent of
a small grove among hundreds of millions of forest acres
at risk. But it is a start, he says. If people pressure
governments and corporations to use certified woods, it
could be the foundation for a sustainable future.