RAN Writes to the FSC
Coming up in November, RAN staff will be attending the FSC General Assembly meeting as one of 350 members of the environmental chamber. The FSC is the only forest certification scheme in the world in which RAN and environmentalists can fight for greater protections – others, like the SFI, won’t even let us in the door. And it’s a good thing too, because this year we have some serious issues to bring up with the FSC.
As you can read in our letter to the FSC Executive Director (ran-to-fsc-101308), the FSC’s Controlled Wood Standard has serious problems with inclusion of wood fiber in violation of the FSC’s rules. Meanwhile, critics have alleged that ‘an estimated sixty percent of FSC timbers come from ancient forests’. As FSC members, RAN is asking the FSC to respond to this claim by providing accurate data regarding the percentage of FSC timbers derived from primary (never industrially managed) and old-growth (older than 200 years) forests.
As RAN undertakes our strategic review of the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC’s) benefits and costs, how the FSC responds to these controversies will affect whether, and how much, RAN can continue supporting the FSC. In coming months, we will continue to report back our conclusions to our members and supporters. Stay tuned.
5 Responses to “RAN Writes to the FSC”
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October 16th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
[...] pressure campaign spearheaded by Ecological Internet (EI), the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has publicly announced they are reviewing their support for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), over concerns regarding [...]
October 18th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Here is Ecological Internet’s take on RAN’s commitment to review FSC:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2008/10/release_ancient_forest_victory.asp
A picture of the protest banner from the New York Climate Action Group’s protest against RAN can be found at:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/img/deranged_big.jpg
October 24th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Jennifer….greetings from Boise!! And why are you and Mike picking on the folks at FSC??
How are you? It appears that you continue to be very busy. All is well with me here in Boise. I continue to do some consulting work and enjoy “semi-retirement”.
Bill
November 30th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
[...] pressure campaign spearheaded by Ecological Internet (EI), the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has publicly announced they are reviewing their support for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), over concerns regarding [...]
February 11th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
[...] possible, or a stamp from the Forest Stewardship Council (a forest products certifier that has pretty high standards.) Unfortunately we don’t usually offer much more guidance than [...]