Rainforest Action Network to review support for FSC certification
mongabay.com
October 16, 2008
The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) said it would review its support for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a forest products certification standard, over concerns regarding its certification of destructive logging operations. The announcement comes after a bitter campaign waged against RAN by Ecological Internet, a forest activist group.
In a letter to Andre Giacini de Freitas, Executive Director of FSC International, RAN Program Director Jennifer Krill raised several concerns about the environmental performance of FSC-certified producers, including the use of timber from old-growth forests. She wrote that RAN’s continued support of FSC would depend on its “ability to deliver ecological integrity” in the marketplace.
RAN is one of 350 members of the FSC’s environmental chamber. RAN says it will raise its concerns at the FSC General Assembly meeting in November.
Friends of the Earth (FOE) announced in September that it would “no longer recommend” the FSC, following the Ecological Internet campaign. At the time, FOE issued a statement saying they are “deeply concerned by the number of FSC certifications that are now sparking controversy and threatening the credibility of the scheme. We cannot support a scheme that fails to guarantee high environmental and social standards. As a result we can no longer recommend the FSC standard.”
