Sustainable Forests News: Canada, Brazil and more

Tembec Inc., one of Canada’s largest forest products companies and owner of over 13 million hectares (50,000 square miles) is undergoing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for all its forest operations. They hope to complete the process by 2005, a “challenging but realistic” timeframe, according to World Wildlife Fund of Canada, the group that secured the pledge. Currently, 19 million hectares worldwide are FSC-certified.

The company recently received ISO 14001 certification for all forestry operations, pulp and paper mills, and most sawmills. Both certifications are part of Tembec’s “Forever Green” program to integrate sustainable forest management practices throughout company operations. Another Tembec program, “Impact Zero”, focuses on minimizing the environmental impact of fiber processing activities, also with an implementation target of 2005.

Tembec is one of the 30 largest wood product companies in the world with 8000 employees, 39 manufacturing facilities, and gross sales of CA$2.6 billion. Its mills produce more than 1 billion board feet of softwood, finger-jointed and hardwood lumber, flooring, Oriented Strand Board, and laminated-veneer lumber. Tembec also runs pulp, paper, paperboard, and chemical operations.
http://www.tembec.com

Timber company Cikel Brasil Verde in Brazil announced the company will seek FSC certification of over 140,000 hectares of forestland. This doubles the area of Amazon forest certified by FSC in Brazil. Cikel plans to have the remaining 65,000 hectares of its forests certified by 2003. Brazil has the most FSC-certified land in Latin America – 870,000 hectares – Bolivia is second.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is asking the world’s 10 leading forestry companies to back the FSC to “provide the incentive and the pressure to make the industry change.” According to a recent WWF report, “The Forest Industry in the 21st Century,” if managed correctly, one fifth of the world’s forests – about 600 million hectares of forest or twice the size of India – could meet projected world needs.

The five largest forestry companies process about 20 per cent of the world’s wood: International Paper, Georgia Pacific, Weyerhaeuser, Stora-Enso and Smurfit Stone Container. The five largest wood buyers are Home Depot, Lowes, IKEA, Kimberly-Clark and Proctor and Gamble. Home Depot, Lowes and IKEA support FSC, and Stora-Enso has FSC certification for its forests in Sweden. Through the Global Forest and Trade Network, more than 700 companies that produce and use wood support the FSC and its certification efforts. That number is expected to top 1,000 companies by the end of this year.

Half of the world’s original forest cover has been destroyed, according to WWF. Protecting, managing and restoring the world’s forests is the only way to conserve the remaining half, it says.

A May 10^th article in the Economist, a magazine known for its capitalist stance, makes the case for certified forest management in Brazil’s rainforests. In “Managing the Rainforests,” the author states that sustainable management could preserve the Amazonian rainforest without harming economic development. It points to the encouraging fact that timber firms are beginning to view intact forest as an asset that can actually be more profitable if properly managed. The Rosa Group, a large timber firm there, is applying for FSC certification because European and North America buyers prefer it and are willing to pay a premium price for it. Most Amazonia timber though is used in Brazil and thus the growth of sustainable forestry depends on pressure from the local economy. Last year, 40 Brazilian companies formed a buyers group to purchase certified wood. http://www.economist.com

In a lecture delivered May 2 at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia, Harvard biodiversity expert E.O. Wilson said, “Large blocks of remaining wilderness areas can be preserved at remarkably low cost.” Conservationists estimate that U.S. $28 billion would protect 70 percent of the known plant and animal species in the world by purchasing their habitat. A mere $4 billion would buy most of the remaining tropical forest wilderness – located mostly in the Congo, New Guinea, and the Amazon. U.S. $24 billion would pay for preserving 2.4 million square kilometers of “hot spot” areas that harbor a wide range of plant and animal life. Both Wilson and the above Economist article emphasize that true conservation requires more than simply roping off the area – perverse subsidies, poverty and other issues must be addressed.

In April, an historic agreement with timber companies and Canadian government was reached to protect Canada’s remaining coastal rainforest. Timber-industry officials agreed to protect 3.5 million acres of British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest, one of the last remaining temperate rainforests. The accord calls for 1.5 million acres to be permanently protected from logging, and another two million acres to be protected under a logging moratorium for two years until sustainable forestry standards can be established.

Environmental activists protested logging there for over 10 years and succeeded in pressuring companies worldwide to boycott products coming from the rainforest. Canadian and British fund managers divested shares in logging companies, and dozens of companies voiced strong concerns over BC logging company practices. Home Depot, Lowes, powerful pulp buyers such as the German paper and magazine association, Auspine, an Australian timber importer, the Italian supermarket chain Coop, the Belgian Timber Trade Federation (representing Belgian timber importers) and companies in New Zealand, China and The Netherlands all ceased buying products from Interfor. In Japan, over 70 companies including Mitsubishi and Fujiya stopped buying from Interfor following the release of a report naming Japanese customers.