ACTION
ALERT
***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
The
Merits of Certified Forestry:
Good
Intentions Betray Gabon, African Rainforest
***********************************************
Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
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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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,
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