Monday, 08 May 2006
Why We Need FSC
By Dr. Michael P. Washburn
“On February 12, 2005, Sister Dorothy Stang, an American nun from Ohio, was murdered in the Brazilian Amazon. During nearly half a century, Sister Dorothy had been fighting for human rights among the rural poor in the northern states of Maranhão and Pará…, she promoted sustainable development and land reform as an alternative to the current ‘predatory model’ of economic development in Brazil, which is viciously exploitative of its natural and human resources….” So states a recent report on Sister Dorothy’s work from American University. “Responding to the international outcry at Dorothy’s murder, the Brazilian government created two large forest reserves, placed a six-month ban on logging licenses in parts of the territory, dispatched 2000 troops to control the area, and announced the establishment of 19 domains for the protection of peasant livelihoods.”
These events serve as a stark reminder to all of us about why FSC is so important. Recent news headlines unfortunately make it easy to sell the notion that FSC is an important forest conservation tool, and that our work is as important, perhaps more so now than ever.
On March 22, 2006 the Washington Post reported that flooring products found in major do-it-yourself chains in the U.S. had been traced to illegal sources by the UK based Environmental Investigation Services. For those of us who may think that illegal logging is something that happens “somewhere else,” this is an important reminder that a global market means there are few places that are not affected by what we buy and use here at home.
From The Economist, December 9, 2005, “as the toll of dead and missing from landslides and flash floods in the northeast [of the Phillipines] passed 1,500 last weekend, President Gloria Arroyo led a chorus of blame directed at illegal logging. It was a familiar refrain, heard almost every year since 1991, when floods killed at least 5,000 in the eastern district of Ormoc, and since then little has been done to counter deforestation.” Did someone buy the wood that came from those operations? Most likely it disappeared into the global marketplace with no questions asked.
Last fall, three Cambodian park rangers were killed by illegal loggers. Somebody bought that wood too. Did it become flooring? Perhaps it became packaging, shipped all over the world. It is a challenge to us all to figure out who along the value chain should bear the responsibility for these outcomes.
FSC is the premier tool for buyers to use in ensuring that the products they buy did not originate from sources such as these. While there is still much to do, our work in raising the awareness of these issues and providing a tool that helps people make more responsible choices is having an impact. Not only are buyers becoming empowered to make better choices, but those companies doing the right thing on the ground are being rewarded for their commitments.
As author John Perlin makes clear in his recently revised A Forest Journey (Countryman Press, 2005), forests have played a major role in shaping society since the beginning. Chances are that long from now, someone will follow on Perlin’s work and describe the role forests played in the 21st century and those that follow. We can be proud that we are working hard to shape what those chapters will look like, and thanks to Mr. Perlin for reminding us that forests and our society are linked, and we should all be sure that we do the best we can to provide healthy, sustainable, productive forests for future generations.