FSC at a crossroad: Veracel
timber certification would be yet another disaster for FSC
The wood-pulp
producing company Veracel has applied for FSC certification of its
tree plantations in the Brazilian state of Bahia and the evaluation
process is being carried out by the international certification
firm SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance).
Veracel, a joint venture between Swedish-Finnish Stora Enso and
Norwegian-Brazilian Aracruz Cellulose exports almost all the pulp
produced in Brazil to overseas markets, where it is converted into
paper.
A large number
of Brazilian and international organizations are opposing this certification,
on the grounds that these plantations have resulted in widespread
negative social and environmental impacts -including occupation
of indigenous and local communities’ lands, rural migration,
unemployment, water depletion and pollution, ecosystem destruction,
biodiversity loss- which clearly make them uncertifiable. Those
and other impacts have been well documented (1)
and both the certifying body and the FSC Board have been made aware
of the situation.
Much of Veracel’s
pulp ends up as paper produced and consumed in Europe, where many
concerned citizens wish to know if the paper they consume is produced
in a socially beneficial and environmentally appropriate manner.
This is what the FSC system is supposed to provide them with.
“The
German consumers expect the FSC-certifiers to endorse sustainable
forest operations, not thousands of hectares of Eucalyptus monocultures
sprayed with agrochemicals like in the case of Veracel”, emphasizes
Peter Gerhardt, from the German organization Robin Wood.
The FSC has
been going through a two-year review of its plantations policy as
a response to widespread criticism about the issuance of FSC certificates
to large-scale monoculture plantations. The Board of Directors adopted
the final report of the FSC plantation policy review in February
2007. The policy review recommends that FSC invest more in preventing
things going wrong, rather than trying to ‘undo’ damage
once it has been done. Continuing the certification assessment despite
the significant shortcomings already documented by local communities
affected by Veracel’s plantations will be in clear violation
of these plantation policy review recommendations.
Jutta Kill,
from FERN, stresses that “Whilst the FSC plantations review
is still ongoing, it is incomprehensible that an accredited FSC
certifier would be willing to jeopardize the trust many FSC Environmental
Chamber members have put into this process by considering the certification
of one of the most controversial plantations operations in the world.”
The Timberwatch
Coalition has for many years been campaigning against socially and
ecologically destructive fast wood plantations in South Africa,
many of which now have the FSC label. Wally Menne, a Timberwatch
representative says “It is shocking that SGS seems to have
learned nothing from the controversy FSC certification of fast wood
plantations has created.”
Ricardo Carrere,
international coordinator of the World Rainforest Movement says
that “Veracel must clearly not receive FSC certification,
but at the same time it is essential that the FSC cease to certify
fast wood plantations and that it begins to de-certify a large number
of plantations that should have never received the FSC label.”
The NGOs
involved in this process stress that “Certifying Veracel would
be yet another disaster for FSC.”
