Background
Environmental Non-government Organizations (ENGOs) are private institutions that are independent of the government that work on a variety of issues focused on improving the state of the natural environment. There are a large diversity of ENGOs focused on forest conservation in the Americas. They range in size from local community groups to large, multi-national organizations.
ENGOs working to conserve forests in America have historically worked to influence government policy. For example in the U.S., these efforts resulted in some important and significant policies related to forest conservation such as the Endangered Species Act, The National Forest Management Act and, at the state level, various forest practices acts.
Yet, in spite of some important successes influencing government policy, the logging of forests has expanded as the wood products industry continues to operate on an increasing and accelerated scale over the last several decades. The America’s continue to lead the world in overall production of forest products. (FAO, Global Forest Products Outlook Study 1998) http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x1607e/X1607E00.htm
Industrial forestry practices of concern to conservation groups, local communities and indigenous cultures have not only continued without substantial reform but have expanded, apparently unabated by government policy. It is against this historical backdrop that, beginning in the 1990s ENGOs began to implement a new strategy focused on influencing U.S. market demand for forest products as a means of achieving forest conservation goals.
The Issues with Industrial Forestry in the Americas
Forest protection campaigns focus on changing a number of industrial forestry practices that have negative impacts on the environment, including large-scale clearcutting, logging of endangered forests, conversion of native forests to tree plantations, the release of genetically engineered trees, and chemical spraying in forest plantations. In addition to the environment, conservation groups in America are concerned with the impacts of industrial logging local communities and indigenous cultures throughout the Americas.
1. Clear cutting
Clear cutting is the practice of harvesting all or most of the trees on a plot of forestland. This practice is associated with a variety of negative impacts including the degradation of soil and water quality, the destruction of wildlife habitat, the loss of carbon storage, and the disruption of natural beauty that impacts viewsheds, quality of life and outdoor recreation opportunities. The most striking examples of this practice are in the Pacific Northwest (http://www.commenspace.org/services/initiatives/clearcut_animations/overview.html) and across large swaths of land in the Boreal Forests of Canada. (http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/forests/forests-worldwide/canada-s-boreal-forest)
2. Conversion of Native Forests to Plantations
Conversion of native forests to plantations occurs when a natural forest is clear-cut and then replanted with a single species of tree that may or may not be native to the region. Plantations are even-aged monocultures that are primarily managed for timber production. According to Harvard Biologist, E.O. Wilson, plantations are 90% less diverse that a natural forests. (The Pines: The Good and the Bad, Appalachian Voice, June 2007) The region most noted for this practice is the Southern U.S. (http://www.dogwoodalliance.org/content/view/41/101/) where millions of acres of natural forests have been converted to industrial tree plantations. (USDA, Southern Forest Resource Assessment, 2002)
3. Logging of Endangered Forests
Endangered forests (http://www.environmentalpaper.org/documents/EF-Report.pdf) are the remaining forests around the globe with outstanding ecological values that would be irreparably harmed by industrial logging. They represent priority areas for focused conservation efforts. In practical terms, these forests represent areas that should be off limits to logging and set aside as ecological reserves. Endangered forests include old-growth, primary and ancient forests in tropical, temperate and boreal zones as well as other ecologically significant forests, such as those in the Southern U.S. where little old-growth remains.
4. Introduction of Genetically-Engineered Trees
The forest industry is working to engineer trees that grow faster, contain less lignin, are more uniform in their characteristics, are more resistant to disease and so forth. The negative ecological impacts associated with the introduction of GE trees (http://www.wrm.org.uy/subjects/GMTrees/text.html) are many. Recently, the U.S. government approved the first ever field trial of a flowering eucalyptus tree, a species native to Australia, in Alabama (http://ga3.org/cfs/alert-description.html?alert_id=10151353). The Southern U.S. leads the world in number of GE tree test plots as well as proposed trials. (http://www.southernsustainableforests.org/ge%20trees.htm)
5. Chemical Spraying
As the number of acres of forest plantations increase, so too has the reliance on toxic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides for use in forest management. (See for example, USDA, SFRA 2002). Conservation groups, local communities and indigenous cultures throughout the Americas are concerned about the wildife and human health effects of the wide-spread and increasing use of these chemicals. (http://www.stopgetrees.org/) The Southern U.S. leads the world in the use of chemicals in forests management, though the practice is quickly being adopted across the rest of the hemisphere. (http://www.southernsustainableforests.org/ge%20trees.htm)
6. Forest Certification – FSC v. SFI
A number of forest certification schemes have emerged over the past two decades that claim to certify industrial forestry practices as sustainable. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) (http://www.fsc.org/en/) certification system and standards were developed by a consensus of environmental, social and economic interests. FSC certification is the certification program most widely accepted by the national and international environmental community. In contrast, in the Americas The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)(http://www.aboutsfi.org/) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) were created in response to FSC by the wood products industry and certify many of the practices that ENGOs campaign against including large-scale clearcutting, intensive use of toxic chemical, and conversion of native forests to plantations as sustainable. (http://credibleforestcertification.org/home/)
7. Illegal Logging
Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of national laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission or from a protected area; the cutting of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. In Brazil, 80% of logging in the Amazon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Rainforest) violates government controls. (WWF International (2002) The Timber Footprint of the G8 and China) Much of this logging is focused on the mahogany trade.
8. Indigenous Rights
In some regions of the America’s heated conflict exists between indigenous communities and large wood products companies, namely pulp and paper corporations. When paper companies are granted concessions to log forests and/or establish fiber plantations without gaining the full and informed prior consent of local communities or indigenous peoples with customary rights on that land, it amounts to an abuse of the land rights of those people and communities. An example is the indigenous Grassy Narrows community in Northern Ontario, Canada. The provincial government has granted forestry permits to paper companies like Abitibi and Weyerhaeuser on the traditional lands of the people of Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows First Nation), without their consent. (http://freegrassy.org/)
The Emergence of Market Campaigns in America
Within the past two decades, a number of forest protection organizations such as Dogwood Alliance (http://www.dogwoodalliance.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1), ForestEthics (http://www.forestethics.org/), Rainforest Action Network (http://www.forestethics.org/), Markets Initiative (http://www.marketsinitiative.org/), and Greenpeace (http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/) have developed high-profile campaigns focused on shifting the market demand for forest products in the U.S. – the largest market for wood products in the world. The end goal is to amass enough support for responsible forestry practices from large U.S. corporate consumers to shift the practices of the world’s largest wood and paper product companies. Ecologically significant forests throughout the America’s including diverse temperate forests of the Southern U.S. and Chile, Canadian Boreal forests and rainforests of South America and Canada are being logged extensively to supply large quantities of wood products to U.S. markets. Campaign groups are working to protect the most ecologically significant or endangered forests, to end illegal logging, the continued conversion of natural forests to plantations and the introduction of genetically engineered tree species. As a solution, conservation groups are advocating for companies to adhere to the standards of FSC certification – the only certification system in existence that addresses most, albeit not all, concerns with current forestry practices. (http://credibleforestcertification.org/home/) In addition, groups are advocating for maximum use of recycled and other environmentally preferable alternatives to wood fiber in the manufacture of paper products as a means of reducing pressure on forests more generally.
Successes
By focusing on influencing the largest corporate purchasers of the products originating from forested regions of concern, campaign groups are beginning to influence the practices of the manufacturers of wood and paper products and leverage improvements on the ground in key regions. For example, in the mid-1990s a high-profile public campaign was launched by a number of campaign groups targeting The Home Depot for its purchases and resale of wood originating from old growth forests in the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia. The two-year campaign involving hundreds of protests outside Home Depot stores across the U.S., resulted in The Home Depot committing to phase out products originating from endangered forests, including the Great Bear Rainforest and to give purchasing preference for products certified by FSC. Similar commitments from numerous other corporate consumers played a key role in securing an historic deal involving conservation groups, large wood products companies, the British Columbia Government and indigenous communities that protected five million acres outright and limited logging on another 10 million acres of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia (http://www.marketsinitiative.org/protecting/the-great-bear-rainforest).
Following The Home Depot campaign, campaign groups launched a campaign targeting Staples, Inc. as a large purchaser of paper from ecologically significant forests in the Southern U.S. and Canadian Boreal regions. After a two-year campaign involving over 600 protests, Staples became the first of the large office supply retailers to adopt an environmental paper procurement policy in which it committed to phase out products from endangered forests, including those in the Southern U.S. and Canadian Boreal and to dramatically increase the amount of post-consumer recycled paper available for sale. (http://www.dogwoodalliance.org/content/view/52/113/#staplevictory) Shortly thereafter campaigns were launched targeting Office Depot and OfficeMax respectively, both of which have now adopted similar forest protection policies. (http://www.dogwoodalliance.org/content/view/52/113/#officeDepot)
In addition to the Do-It-Yourself and Office Supply retail companies, ENGOs have convinced large banks such as Bank of America, large publishing companies such as Random House and large catalogue users such as The Limited Brands to publicly adopt forest protection policies that guide their lending and paper purchasing decisions. As a result, a handful of wood and paper products manufacturers in Chile, Canada, the U.S. and Brazil are beginning to improve their forestry practices in an effort to meet the growing market for products containing post consumer recycled and FSC certified fiber.
Future Challenges and Opportunities
Though a few leaders have emerged and the U.S. marketplace is beginning to hold wood and paper products manufacturers to a higher environmental standard, logging in sensitive ecosystems continues and natural forests continue to be cleared to make way for large industrial tree plantations that are sprayed routinely with chemical herbicides and fertilizers – practices that continue to concern conservation groups, local communities and indigenous peoples. In addition, markets for paper and wood products are expanding in developing countries throughout the world, putting increased demand on forests in the Americas.
However, ENGO advocacy in the marketplace is a relatively new strategy and its full potential for helping society move towards the sustainable use of the Earth’s forests has yet to be reached. New campaigns are emerging to address the continued impacts associated with industrial logging in the Americas and to change the way forest products are bought and sold in the marketplace. For example, a campaign was launched in 2007 focused on greening the U.S. paper packaging industry. (http://www.dogwoodalliance.org/) As the largest sector of the U.S. paper market (see Lockwood-Post Directory of Pulp & Paper Mills: The Americas) major movement among a significant number of large corporate consumers of packaging will be essential to achieving broad-sweeping improvements to forestry practices in important regions such as the Southern U.S. As the U.S. market demand for a higher level of environmental responsibility related to wood and paper products expands, it can serve as a model that can inform newly expanding markets in other parts of the world.
Posted 2 September 2007
| 
