Campaign against the Certification of Veracel's Fast Wood Plantations
July / August 2007

We have recently learnt that Veracel has launched a process to obtain FSC certification for its plantations. It has hired the consulting company SGS for this purpose.

Veracel - which belongs to the Swedish-Finnish company Stora Enso and the Norwegian-Brazilian company Aracruz Celulose - is attempting to obtain certification for its plantations established over 78,000 hectares in the extreme south of the State of Bahia and its impacts are causing major local resistance. As part of the certification process, SGS undertook the main assessment during the week of 23 to 27 July.

In the letter below, our Brazilian companions provide us with sufficient arguments (both related with the impacts of the plantations and with the consultation process carried out by SGS for certification), to show that Veracel should not receive certification.

Arguments to show that Veracel should not receive certification - August 14th of 2007

FSC's response to the letter sent on August 14th - August 22th of 2007

The news about the possible certification of Veracel resulted in strong reactions by numerous organizations from Bahia and other parts of Brazil, that have been for years suffering the impacts and campaigning against these and other fast wood plantations. Although they were never formally “consulted” by SGS, they managed to make their voices heard. A number of organizations -among which WRM- expressed their concerns to the FSC Board in the letter linked below, inviting Board members to visit the area accompanied by Brazilian organizations.

Letter sent to the FSC Board by the following organizations: World Rainforest Movement, FERN , Friends of the Earth International, Forests and Biodiversity Programme, Robin Wood , Timberwatch ,Global Justice Ecology Project, WALHI/Friends of the Earth Indonesia , Rainforest Foundation , Urgewald - July 6th of 2007

However, the Board declined the invitation, responding that “We do not think that it is appropriate or the role of the board to intervene in a public consultation process nor directly in a certification evaluation”. We link the Board response below

Response of the FCS Board to the letter sent on 6 of July 2007 - August 3th 2007