FSC:
Stop certifying monoculture tree plantations!
Asia Pulp and Paper is probably the most controversial paper company
in the world. It has destroyed vast areas of forest in Sumatra and
replaced hundreds of thousands of hectares with monoculture plantations.
In December 2007, the Forest Stewardship Council announced its "dissociation"
from APP after the company starting using the FSC logo. FSC issued
a statement saying that it has "a duty to protect the good
will and integrity associated with its name and logo for consumers
and for our trusted partners and members." At last, it appeared,
FSC had noticed it is greenwashing environmentally and socially
destructive companies. Unfortunately, the dissociation from APP
remains a one-off.
FSC's goal is "to promote environmentally responsible, socially
beneficial and economically viable management of the world's forests."
FSC should not certify industrial tree plantations, for the simple
reason that they are not forests. FSC should no more certify plantations
that it should certify fields of lettuce.
Industrial tree plantations are neither environmentally responsible
nor socially beneficial. They are often only economically viable
as a result of generous government subsidies.
Veracel is perhaps the most egregious example of the many companies
that should never have been certified by FSC. Since the company
established its monoculture eucalyptus plantations in the south
of Bahia state in Brazil, rivers, streams and springs have dried
up. As the company's plantations have expanded the area of land
planted to food crops has decreased. Rural people have lost work
and moved to cities, many living in overcrowded and dangerous favelas.
In July 2008, The Brazilian Federal court fined Veracel for clearing
Atlantic rainforest. The court ordered Veracel to replace its eucalyptus
plantations with native trees. Veracel's certificate remains in
place.
Last year, armed guards employed by another FSC-certified plantation
company, Vallourec & Mannesmann (V&M), shot and killed Antonio
Joaquim dos Santos in front of his 16 year-old daughter. He was
collecting firewood. A year before the shooting, local people submitted
a complaint, pointing out that the replacement of the native savanna
(cerrado) with V&M's monocultures has left the community without
access to firewood and fruits. V&M's response was to increase
the pressure on the community.
The killing came as no surprise to many people. "The threat
to workers and people here is great," a villager told journalist
and activist Heidi Bachram, in 2006. "Shots have been fired
on people by the armed guards. They feel prisoners within their
own lands."
A few weeks after the murder of Antonio Joaquim dos Santos, V&M
announced its "voluntary decision to leave FSC".
In Uruguay, WRM has documented the near-slave labour conditions
in FSC-certified plantations. FYMNSA, one of the FSC-certified companies,
"was violating labour rights", said Jose Bautista, the
head of a local workers union. "It should ever have been certified,"
he added.
Eufores, another FSC-certified company, was recently caught clearing
80 hectares of strictly protected forest in Uruguay. The company
is a subsidiary of the Spanish company ENCE. In June 2008, another
ENCE subsidiary, NORFOR, saw its FSC certificate withdrawn in Spain.
Among the problems that NGOs pointed out were indiscriminate use
of herbicides, damage to the soil, increase in erosion, clearcuts
of more than 20 hectares and the use of exotic species.
In Ireland, Coillte has about 450,000 hectares of pesticide-laden
monoculture plantations. After a 2007 audit, the body which checks
that FSC standards are upheld, Accreditation Services International
(ASI), found that "non-compliance with relevant FSC Criterion
is likely to be ongoing for a few years". Nevertheless, Coillte
remains FSC-certified.
More than 1.6 million hectares of industrial tree plantations are
certified in South Africa. As Philip Owen of the South African NGO
Geasphere points out, "Plantation management operations destroy
grassland's multiple products and services,“ thereby undermining
economic viability and a wide range of environmental and social
benefits."
FSC is well aware of the problems with the certification of plantations.
It has been working on a "Plantations Review" since the
2002 FSC General Assembly. At the time, FSC had certified 3.3 million
hectares of plantations. The figure is now 8.6 million hectares.
The plantations review has made no difference whatsoever to the
way FSC certificates are issued.
In fact, FSC actively promotes industrial tree plantations, by aiming
to increase sales of FSC-labelled paper. FSC's "Global Paper
Forum" brings several hundred industry representatives together
to find "Market opportunities for FSC-labelled paper".
This year's Forum was sponsored by Mondi and Suzano among others.
FSC's General Assembly, which will take place in South Africa in
November, is sponsored by Mondi, Tembec and Sveaskog.
FSC urgently needs to distance itself from the industry it is certifying.
Instead it is getting closer. As it does so, the FSC logo becomes
little more than corporate greenwash.
By Chris Lang, http://chrislang.org
