Fsc Deforestation With Hardwood and Beef Exports
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo isn't hard to detect. The tree-tick symbol tin can exist constitute on hundreds of products on supermarket shelves, article of furniture shops and DIY stores. It's on books, toilet paper and plywood, even car tyres.
The FSC, the world'south leading ethical wood characterization, says its branding tells shoppers the products come up from legal and sustainable sources. Rampant fraud inside its systems suggests otherwise.
As loggers, timber traders, environmentalists and the FSC'southward other international members assemble online for the start of the four-day FSC Full general Associates on Mon 25 October, Earthsight has compiled a list of some of the green scheme's most notable scandals.
The cases show:
- The world's largest forest, paper and pulp firms are complicit in illegal logging, destructive land clearances, abuse and human rights abuses. Huge resources and specialised staff make the industry giants, often billion-dollar firms, the best placed of the FSC's certificate holders to ensure their own practices practise not harm people and the planet. But if the upstanding label'due south most powerful business concern members are running vicious over their ecology and social commitments, why should nosotros expect smaller firms to be acting whatever better? Major paper, pulp and woods companies are not past default worse than smaller ones, but are more likely to accept any dingy practices exposed because the not-profit organisations (NGOs) and journalists investigating the global merchandise in wood and wood products are more than likely to come up across them.
- No wood is safe. The scandals don't simply involve the 'usual suspects'. They are not bars to a few countries with well-known problems related to deforestation and forest governance, similar tropical timber sourced from then-called "high-risk" forests in Republic of indonesia and Brazil. They span multiple continents and woods types, including temperate forests within the European Matrimony (Eu) and protected ones in Russia.
- FSC permit the same problems popular up again and over again. By treating its scandals every bit isolated incidents, the sustainable woods scheme has left its key flaws unaddressed and ignored suggestions on how to ready them. The FSC still stubbornly resists meaningful reform despite mounting bear witness exposed by NGOs of weaknesses within its systems.
Today, the FSC is fast becoming non fit for purpose. Until the green scheme publicly admits its deep-rooted issues, and takes meaningful activity to accost them, its tree-tick logo will only serve to mask ecology and homo rights abuses.
In our current climate emergency, with emissions from deforestation the second biggest contributor to climatic change globally, what happens in forests certified by FSC affects u.s. all. This fact compelled Earthsight and other environmental groups to publish an open up letter on Monday 25 October urging the FSC to commit to firsthand structural reform.
If FSC doesn't run into the challenge, then its long listing of scandals volition almost certainly lengthen. These cases include:
Drone shot of destroyed forest in Romania.
i. Corruption and illegal logging in Europe'southward last intact forests (2015-present)
Culprits: HS Timber Group (then known as Holzindustrie Schweighofer), one of Europe's largest sawn timber producers (plus its many high-profile customers); Romania's land forest assistants agency, Romsilva.
Offences (brought to FSC's attention by 3rd parties): In 2015, a report by the non-turn a profit Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) documented how Schweighofer had been the biggest driver of contempo illegal logging in Romania, home to Europe's last virgin forests as well as bears, wolves and lynx. The Austrian firm bought and traded vast volumes of illegal timber, findings confirmed by Romanian government inspections. The wood included materials sourced from protected and high conservation value (HCV) forests. Schweighofer also made misleading claims about the 'concatenation-of-custody' certification it had obtained from FSC, implying that it was relevant to all of its wood purchases when it actually only practical to those from FSC-certified forests. FSC auditors appeared non to notice corrupt and fraudulent country transactions happening over Schweighofer's FSC-certified forests in Romania.
Environmental impact assessment has also highlighted major concerns over Romania's country forest administration agency, Romsilva. Romsilva, which was FSC-certified, controlled about a third of the country's forests. The former head of the agency resigned in 2016 after a probe past Romania's National Anti-Corruption Directorate (Dna) into the largest land restitution scandal in the state's history. In 2020, whistleblowers told Al Jazeera reporters of threats and attacks faced by employees who stood confronting illegal logging in forests they managed. Since 2020, the European Commission has held Romania in violation of European union law for declining to safeguard protected areas, including Romsilva's FSC-certified sites.
EIA report 'Saving the Last Wood', 2015.
FSC's response:FSC's 'Policy of Association' allows information technology to blacklist firms found guilty of the well-nigh serious abuses. Notwithstanding despite the evidence in this instance being confirmed by its own contained probe, FSC initially refused to blacklist Schweighofer, putting the business firm on "probation" instead. Information technology finally disassociated from the visitor in 2017 – only only afterward outside groups uncovered prove that the company was nonetheless using illegal forest. Even so, FSC began procedures to allow the company back in. No action has been taken on Romsilva, whose forests still retain the green label.
Underlying weaknesses exposed:Unreasonably loftier brunt of proof required for action (FSC will non disassociate fifty-fifty where the "preponderance of prove" indicates serious wrongdoing); failure to accost widespread misrepresentation of FSC chain of custody (CoC) certification; civilization of assuming innocence even for confirmed wrongdoers; inability of FSC's systems to notice serious wrongdoing, even where supporting evidence is in the public domain.
An area of Siberian woods illegally logged by a Russian timber businesswoman used past Ikea.
2. Ikea linked to logging abuses in protected forests crucial to Earth'southward climate (2021)
Culprits: Ikea, the globe'south largest furniture retailer (among other buyers of the FSC-certified wood concerned); Russian businessman and local politician Evgeny Bakurov; forest managers in Russian federation's Irkutsk region.
Offences (brought to FSC's attention past third parties): Earthsight's 2021 report IKEA'due south Business firm of Horrors revealed how the multibillion-dollar retail giant had for years sold children'southward furniture fabricated from wood linked to illegal logging in Siberia, where rampant tree-cutting threatens forests crucial to the planet's climate. The Russian companies engaged in the illegal practices are controlled past Evgeny Bakurov, a local politician in the state's remote Irkutsk region. Bakurov's companies felled thousands of copse in protected forests on the false pretext they were dead, damaged or diseased – what's known every bit "sanitary felling". (It's a common lie used to flout Russian forestry laws.) Bakurov'due south pine was certified by the FSC and ended up in Ikea stores around the earth. FSC audits did non observe obvious prove of wrongdoing. Earthsight also uncovered testify that Bakurov'southward companies laundered not-certified wood using the FSC logo.
FSC'southward response: Bakurov's logging business firm chose to voluntarily cease its FSC certificate shortly after learning of Earthsight'south findings. FSC's public response to Earthsight'south report implied that the discovery of wrongdoing by auditors had triggered this, simply the 'non-confirmities' they had detected were minor and unrelated to the testify Earthsight exposed. The ethical wood label also issued a moratorium on sales of wood and wood products originating from sanitary logging in Russia's Irkutsk region, but claimed that this conclusion was unrelated to Earthsight's findings. FSC besides tasked their subsidiary Assurance Services International (ASI) to investigate the report's findings – only ASI's ain findings are likely to remain clandestine. Bakurov'southward sawmill still has a valid FSC Chain of Custody document, allowing it to sell FSC labelled wood.
Underlying weaknesses exposed: Assumption of innocence / lower standards than EU law (companies formally accused in courtroom of serious offences can remain certified until they are convicted); Conflicts of interest at the middle of FSC (contributing to FSC-accredited certifiers' unwillingness to deed); lack of transparency around FSC processes (CoC published summaries and ASI investigations exercise not need to exist made public); FSC'southward lack of "transaction verification" for woods purchases (allowing woods to be laundered easily through certified supply chains); narrow definition of associated companies in policy of association; absence of systems to check compliance with policy of association; failure to use readily available satellite imagery equally part of standard auditing.
iii. Chinese plywood behemothic's lumber laundry (2020-21)
Culprits: Jiangsu Loftier Hope Arser ("Arser"), China's largest plywood exporter and a state-owned foreign trade enterprise.
Offences (brought to FSC's attention by 3rd parties): Eia's written report The Lie Behind the Ply, published earlier this year, linked Arser to an apparent fraud involving the laundering of tropical-faced Chinese-made plywood. The company appears to have lied about where the tropical timber used in the plywood came from and falsely claimed the materials were certified by the FSC. Though some European importers seemed to be aware the claim was dubious, EU and UK firms imported more than 100,000 tons of the plywood between 2016 and 2018. The imports took place in apparent breach of the EU'south flagship timber import law, hugely undermining the legislation. Eia's report also recommended that FSC introduce a mandatory, transparent system to trace transactions of forest and wood products, too as tackle fraud rife amongst Chinese plywood firms.
EIA report 'The Lie Behind the Ply', 2021.
FSC's response:FSC's own contained investigation uncovered additional laundering and fraud by Arser and resulted in the firm losing its certificate before Environmental impact assessment's findings were published – just this one-off investigation was triggered by third-party information. FSC has also evidently taken no activeness against the FSC-certified European importers which Eia hugger-mugger investigations demonstrated were well aware of the likelihood of laundering by Arser but failed to human action.
Underlying weaknesses exposed:FSC's lack of systems to track certified forest through supply chains, leaving it broad open to rampant fraud; FSC's lack of transparency.
Rainforest cleared for a palm oil plantation in Indonesia.
4. Precious rainforests bulldozed in Indonesia (2007-nowadays)
Culprits: Asia Pulp and Newspaper (APP), and APRIL, two of the world'southward largest pulp and paper firms; Korindo, among the largest tropical plywood exporters globally; Djarum Group.
Offences (brought to FSC'due south attention past third parties): Immigration large tracts of valuable tropical forest in Republic of indonesia, in some cases illegally and/or in violation of traditional customary rights.
FSC'south response: FSC blacklisted the two pulp and newspaper giants after concerted effort by NGOs, and then, in the example of APP, failed to enforce that disassociation, allowing the firm to keep selling products under the FSC characterization unnoticed for over a decade. As in the Schweighofer case mentioned above, FSC chose to trust the word of Korindo, a visitor found guilty of serious abuses, that it would make clean upwardly its deed, and only blacklisted it after NGOs exposed continued wrongdoing. The case of Djarum (which left FSC before it could be kicked out) revealed the inability of FSC to learn wider lessons from its scandals. After the very similar Korindo case, no effort was made to identify other FSC-certified logging companies in Indonesia which also had related firms involved in converting woods to oil palm plantations, even though the high risk of this was obvious to anyone with knowledge of forest issues in the state.
Underlying weaknesses exposed: Failure to pro-actively monitor compliance with FSC Policy of Clan (FSC does not require checks on companies affiliated with certificate holder/s); the unreasonably high burden of proof needed for FSC to investigate alleged wrongdoing; flawed scope of FSC's Policy of Association criteria; conflicts of interest within the certification scheme.
A scene of deforestation in the Ukraine Carpathians.
5. Wood panel and paper giants plunder Ukraine (2018-present)
Culprits: State-owned logging companies in Ukraine; numerous multi-billion dollar corporates, many of them Austrian, and including the 3 largest wood panel manufacturers on the planet and the globe's largest paper producer; household-name retailers selling their products.
Offences (brought to FSC's attending by third parties): Earthsight's 2018 report Complicit in Corruption found evidence of widespread illegality and abuse relating to timber felled in state-owned, FSC-certified logging enterprises in Ukraine. The suspect woods was traced to some of the earth'southward largest wood firms, some of which were mentioned in Ukrainian criminal investigations into abuse, illegal logging and exports of illegal woods. One of them, a subsidiary of the at present-renamed HS Timber Group (the Austrian business firm mentioned before in the FSC hall of shame), was directly implicated in a corrupt scheme masterminded by Ukraine'due south old forestry main, Viktor Sivets. FSC auditors continued to certify country-endemic logging firms despite convictions and/or formal allegations from local prosecutors of serious illegalities and abuse. Partly thanks to FSC giving the wood its light-green label, the panel and paper giants had imported large volumes of wood from land logging enterprises field of study to such investigations and purchased timber exported in contravention of a log export ban. FSC auditors failed to annotation whatever of this at the time.
Earthsight report 'Complicit in Corruption', 2018.
FSC'south response:ASI, the outfit tasked with enforcing FSC's rules, carried out special checks in Ukraine in response. Just its investigation was deeply flawed, and failed to find anything as a result. Information technology did not fifty-fifty follow up on any of the several documented cases of large-scale corruption or bribery. No action was taken against any companies equally a upshot. Meanwhile the local FSC office issued a joint statement with the Ukrainian forest bureau about how best to solve "problems" with forestry in the state. The statement made no mention of illegality, instead placing the blame on what its authors considered unreasonable regulation. Rather than calling to remove conflicts of interest, ameliorate enforcement and increase transparency, the statement demanded that the "ecological limitations" placed on logging by sanitary felling laws be removed to brand the activity more profitable. Every bit a result, Earthsight found illegality remained rampant in FSC forests in the state two years later. FSC'southward response to our second report was also flawed, ignoring near of the allegations.
Underlying weaknesses exposed:Assumption of innocence / lower standards than EU police (companies formally accused in court of serious offences can remain certified until they are convicted); culture at FSC of angle over backwards to conform logging interests, including through lobbying governments on their behalf; conflicts of interest leading certifiers into cosy relations with the firms they certify.
Okoume logs piled high in Gabon.
6. Human rights abuses and deforestation in the Congo Basin (2005-present)
Culprits: Siforco (so parent company Danzer Group) and Sodefor, 2 logging firms that have historically represented nigh half of officially recorded harvesting and exports in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Olam, a multibillion-dollar agribusiness.
Offences (brought to FSC'southward attending by 3rd parties): Traditional and human rights abuses, including rape and murder. Degrading and clearing vast tracts of precious tropical forest. In Apr 2011, local villagers protested Siforco'south failure to respect promises to build a school and clinic past blockading the company's operations. Police officers the company chosen in to break up the protest went on a binge. Several villagers are reported to take been beaten and arrested, six women including three minors raped, and property damaged and burnt. 1 villager is reported to have died as a result of injuries sustained in the attack. An independent investigation concluded that Siforco was indirectly responsible. Information technology had paid the police and provided them with transport. Another logging behemothic in the DRC, Sodefor, as well received FSC 'controlled wood' certification in 2010 despite being involved in man rights violations and the destruction of high conservation value forests. The certifier involved had failed to conduct even the well-nigh basic checks. In 2016, some other FSC-certified logger operating in the Congo Bowl found itself in hot water after being caught bulldozing HCV forest in Gabonese republic. Research by Earthsight later establish that Olam – the world'due south largest farmer – had cleared more forest during the preceding five years than any other company in the entire Congo Bowl.
FSC'southward response: FSC only noticed, and acted on, the abuses by Siforco and Sodefor when prompted to do and so through complaints by NGOs. Sodefor left before it could be kicked out; Siforco's parent company was eventually blacklisted but was allowed back a twelvemonth afterward after selling its DRC subsidiary. Wider recommendations from the complaints panels in the two cases were not properly followed upward, and lessons non learned with regard to pro-actively checking for compliance with Policy of Clan, every bit the many subsequent instance studies show. Though it admitted guilt, Olam was allowed to retain its relationship with FSC after promising to stop immigration jungle and make amendments for its past actions. FSC took another four years to launch a formal blacklisting investigation, after Olam allegedly failed to stick to the bargain.
Underlying weaknesses exposed: Sodefor and Siforco were certified under a controversial, lower quality FSC 'controlled wood' standard, demonstrating the additional risks involved with allowing such materials to be mixed with fully certified material. Failures by the certification companies concerned also illustrated how conflicts of interest were undermining audit standards. The Olam case, every bit with Schweighofer and the companies in Republic of indonesia, demonstrates FSC's failure to actively law its Policy of Association.
Source: https://www.earthsight.org.uk/news/blog-fsc-hall-of-shame-the-ethical-wood-label-long-list-of-scandals
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