ARE green consumers who insist on buying furniture or timber that carries the prestigious Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) logo being misled? A veteran defender of the forests claims they could in fact be buying timber cut from rare tiger habitat or regions where there is illegal logging, or removed using methods that cause epidemics of malaria.
The FSC was set up in 1993 by rainforest campaigners from groups such as the WWF and the Sierra Club to encourage environmentally friendly and socially responsible logging. It caught on around the world. Today, the FSC has certified that 29 million hectares of forests, an area larger than Britain, are managed in a sustainable way. Its logo appears on 10,000 products sold widely throughout North America and Europe.
But Simon Counsell, director of the London-based Rainforest Foundation, claims in a report called Trading in Credibility published last week that the certification system used by the FSC is deeply flawed. The FSC has subcontracted certification to companies over which it has little control, he says, and the process does not rely on sufficiently strict scientific criteria.
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He claims that the FSC is caught up in a race with commercial rivals to become the world鈥檚 top certifier of environmentally friendly timber. 鈥淭here are not enough truly certifiable forests,鈥� he says.
The FSC has not denied the claims, and says it 鈥渨elcomes criticism鈥�. But it also says that Counsell 鈥渃ites many cases that have long been resolved鈥�.
Counsell criticises two organisations that certify timber for the FSC: Smartwood, set up by the Rainforest Alliance in New York, and SGS Qualifor in Oxford. Counsell claims that SGS Qualifor has certified logging in a part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra inhabited by the Sumatran tiger. The tigers there are 鈥渦ncounted, unstudied and unprotected鈥�, Counsell says. 鈥淚t is difficult to imagine circumstances in which logging could not be certified if [this area] is considered acceptable.鈥�
Nobody at SGS Qualifor could comment as 快猫短视频 went to press. But the FSC claims that far from coming under pressure from logging, the tigers are moving into the area being logged.
Counsell also claims that in 1998 Smartwood licensed a logging operation on the main Indonesian island of Java despite 鈥渕assive illegal logging in the certified areas鈥�. He alleges that Smartwood鈥檚 head office decided to overrule on-the-spot assessors who recommended against certification. Two years later, the certification was withdrawn. As 快猫短视频 went to press, Smartwood was not responding to enquiries about the accusations.
Counsell also claims that two FSC-certified logging operations in the Brazilian Amazon are aggravating a major outbreak of malaria. He says crude deforestation leaves behind bare land dotted with sunlit pools of water in which malarial mosquitoes breed. Yet 鈥渘either company has any programme to prevent or control the spread of malaria in their areas,鈥� he says.
He also claims that nobody can be sure if timber sold with an FSC label was actually harvested from an FSC-certified forest, as its 鈥渃hain of custody certification鈥�, intended to keep tabs on timber, is often operating blind. He calls for the FSC to take direct charge of certification. But the FSC says that this would 鈥渞equire extraordinary investments鈥�. Counsell鈥檚 report can be read at .