ORGANIZATIONS
FROM 8 COUNTRIES DEMAND THE FSC TO WITHDRAW CERTIFICATES
Spain:
From the galician ecologist movement to the FSC
In Galicia, we have been suffering
for many years the consequences of the dreadful influence of the
company ENCE in our natural environment and in our economy. The
forestry branch of ENCE, dedicated to the monoculture and trading
of eucalyptus wood for the manufacturing of pulp has played a role
that has caused the impoverishment and abandonment of rural communities,
abandonment of forestry lands, what causes a high risk of fire,
has caused intense erosion of lands of its own and held with other
companies due to the plantation methods applied, has used, on a
massive basis, large volumes of pesticides that have caused the
loss of biological diversity and the destruction of resources, has
polluted streams and underground aquifers, has caused the loss of
fitness of the forest for leisure purposes, has replaced natural
systems protected by the Directive on Habitats and has caused the
loss of quality of the landscape of the areas occupied by their
activities.
But in spite of putting in practice
a model of forestry management evidently unsustainable and that
seriously breaches most of the principles and criteria of the FSC,
in complicity with the certifier SGS, the company has obtained the
certificate of the council. In secret, hiding the situation of the
lands to conceal their bad practices, although the claims submitted
clearly evidence the non-compliance with principles and criteria,
NORFOR continues to be certified.
At present the company is authorized
to purchase wood and to transform it into certified wood, with no
other control apart from the one supposedly exercised by the certifier
that has shown its efforts for keeping the certification of NORFOR
at all costs; in the meantime, the company continues to purchase
wood in any kind of estate that accepts the prices offered by them.
In view of this situation we
request that, in accordance with the objective of the FSC to “promote
the environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically
viable of the world’s forests” the certification of
NORFOR is cancelled forthwith.
Galicia, August 31, 2006
FEDERACIÓN ECOLOXISTA
GALEGA
ASOCIACIÓN POLA DEFENSA DA RÍA
ASOCIACIÓN PARA A DEFENSA ECOLÓXICA DE GALICIA
VERDEGAIA
COLECTIVO ECOLOXISTA LUITA VERDE
ASEMBLEA DO SUÍDO
OUREOL
