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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Battle
Over Forest Certification Standards
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
04/23/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
As
corporate and other consumers of timber are turning to "certified"
timber
and forest products, the term is in danger of being usurped
and
made meaningless, much like its predecessor "sustainable".
Industrial
scale logging that does not strive for ecological
sustainability,
however good the rhetoric, still means intensive and
extensive
logging, and ecological diminishment, of ancient old-growth
forests. Certified management of secondary,
regenerating and
reforested
lands is welcome. The forest
conservation community must
be
vigilante in delineating minimum acceptable standards for
certification
that include strict maintenance of ecological processes
and
patterns. With only about 20% of the
World's ancient forests
left,
the default assumption should be that their best use is
preservation
and/or non-logging conservation management alternatives.
Procedures
and standards must be established to determine when
"certified"
logging should be considered. Logging
of old-growth
should
only occur under exceptional circumstances of local need and
under
local control. Very rarely should
industrial scale operations
be
considered. Anything else is
capitulating to "certified"
destruction
of the World's remaining forest wildlands.
g.b.
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Title: Forest Certification Battle Axes Clash
Source: Environment News Service,
http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 2000, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: April 19, 2000
ANTWERP,
Belgium, April 19, 2000 (ENS) - European environmental groups
have
lashed out at the fledgling Pan-European Forest Certification
(PEFC)
agency backed by the timber industry, accusing it of "bias," a
"closed
door approach," and preventing wider stakeholder
participation.
Forest
certification is the process of inspecting particular forests
or
woodlands to see if they are being managed according to an agreed
set of
standards.
Twenty-four
NGOs from 12 countries discussed the PEFC at a meeting in
Antwerp
last week. They complained that the PEFC has failed to show
that it
would ensure meaningful improvement in forest management.
They
back the competing global Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and
say the
PEFC threatens to undermine progress towards global solutions
by
focusing on Europe.
The
attack comes as the PEFC is finalising accreditation of its first
three
national schemes in Finland, Norway and Sweden. Consultants
hired
by the PEFC are assessing programmes put forward by the three
countries.
Public comments are welcome.
"This
is an important step in fulfilling the objective of promoting
sustainable
forest management," PEFC chairman Henri Plauche Gillon
said
after a meeting in Luxembourg in early March finalised rules for
establishing
that labeled timber comes from sustainably managed
forests.
"PEFC believes that everyone's views should be heard."
"We
could see 25 to 30 million hectares (96,500 to 115,800 square
miles)
certified to the PEFC by the end of 2000," Plauche Gillon
predicted.
The
13.5 million hectares (52,110 square miles) already certified
under
the Finnish national scheme are expected to rise to 22 million
(84,920
square miles) by the end of 2000.
Currently,
3.5 million hectares (13,510 square miles) are certified by
PEFC in
Norway, and one million hectares (3,860 square miles) in
Sweden.
The
anticipated rapid growth in use of the PEFC logo could pitch the
scheme
into headlong competition with the global Forest Stewardship
Council,
which has certified nine million hectares (34,740 square
miles)
in Sweden.
Environmental
NGOs are sceptical about whether PEFC is as effective in
representing
wider stakeholder interests as the NGO backed Forest
Stewardship
Council (FSC) system.
"They
are trying to give the image of a credible label of sustainable
forestry,
but are really just labelling the status quo," Ellen von
Zitzewitz
of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) European policy
office
said.
The
global Forest Stewardship Council scheme, which WWF actively
supports,
is "already a compromise between economic, social and
environmental
factors" below which NGOs cannot go, she said.
The FSC
has one-third of its representation from NGOs. in contrast,
PEFC
offered just two of 18 seats on national bodies to them, an offer
von
Zitzewitz said no NGO has taken up.
Environmental
NGOs are concerned that logging continues in Europe's
last
old growth forests in Norway and Sweden, and that indigenous
people's
rights have been ignored.
The
planned speed of PEFC's certification plans throws doubts on what
it is
doing, von Zitzewitz said.
The
industry certifying agency hopes to sign up 25 million hectares
(96,500
square miles) in Finland alone by year end, compared with a
total
of 20 million (77,2000 square miles) certified by the FSC
worldwide
in the past four years.
The
industry's Pan European Forest Certification system outperforms
its
global, NGO-backed rival on several counts in a comparative matrix
published
by the European paper industry April 12.
Under
preparation for the Confederation of European Paper Industries
(CEPI)
for almost a year, the matrix assessed 26 national and
international
schemes with the aim of providing reliable information
to
purchasers and promoting mutual recognition. It was based on a
questionnaire
sent to 46 organisations worldwide, some of whom have
still
to reply.
The
PEFC system scored more highly than the competing Forest
Stewardship
Council on accreditation procedures at the national level
and
transparency rules regarding public information, as well as on
compliance
of accreditation bodies with International Standard
Organisation
requirements.
On most
other indices, such as independence and impartiality,
consensus
building and product labelling, the two schemes performed
almost
identically.
TWO
SETS OF CERTIFICATION CRITERIA SIDE BY SIDE
The FSC
certification criteria emphasize that ecological functions and
values
shall be maintained intact, enhanced, or restored, including
forest
regeneration and succession; genetic, species, and ecosystem
diversity;
and natural cycles that affect the productivity of the
forest
ecosystem. Compensation for indigenous peoples; protection for
rare,
threatened and endangered species and their habitats and
environmentally
friendly non-chemical methods of pest management are
emphasized.
The
complete listing of FSC certification criteria is online at:
http://www.fscoax.org/principal.htm
PEFC
bases its certification standards on the six Pan-European
Criteria
for Sustainable Forest Management. In brief, "The stewardship
and use
of forests and forest land in a way and at a rate, that
maintains
their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity,
vitality
and their potential to fulfil now and in the future, relevant
ecological,
economic and social functions, at local, national and
global
levels and does not cause damage to other ecosystems."
The
full set of criteria is online at: http://www.pefc.org/technic.htm
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