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Forest Certification

Started by jim king, July 08, 2008, 09:01:18 PM

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jim king

Today I was in a meeting with some government officials here in Peru and I was asked a simple question that I did not have an answer for.  The question was what determines who can certify a forestry operation.

Both the FSC and the WWF have been involved in scandels here and elsewhere and dont have much credibilty.  They simply contract out the work to local companies that receive their pay and never visit the actual logging sites.

What would the State Government have to do to legitimatly certify the logging activities here to prove that the business is managed in accordance to the current standards that the world beleives to be correct.

Is it possible ?

Texas Ranger

My opinion is that the whole thing is a scam, sort of like carbon credits.
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

Ron Scott

That doesn't speak good for FSC and WWF. Maybe try the dual certification of FSC and SFI.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the world's forests.

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) program is based on the premise that responsible environmental behavior and sound business decisions can co-exist.

http://www.sfiprogram.org/
~Ron

Gary_C

I would agree with Texas Ranger, this certification is a scam and has been from the beginning. I though at first that it would fall flat on it's face because of lack of any real consumer demand. However since Time, Inc. and other magazine publishers have gotten behind the program from the paper demand side of this thing and those paper buyers are increasingly getting their tenacles into the paper suppliers, it has grown. And they have become stronger in spite of some embarasing revelations about some of their large "mixed source" pulp suppliers around the world.

However other than the "green building " program which is again full of problems like giving credits to providing bike racks, there is not much push on the lumber side of this certification.

So Jim, as far as what to do, I don't know what would be best for you. If your government exposes this fraud, I am sure they will retaliate in some way and make things worse for you. On the other hand maybe they need some more embarasing news to clean up this scam. I do not think there is any other real alternative.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

jim king

Texas Ranger:
I have to agree that they are all nonprofits stacked with people who live well crying wolf but the new "Lacey Act" revision in the US has made certification virtually mandatory unless everyone involved in producing tropical wood and including the buyer in the US want to go to jail.
If we do not have the logging permission , chain of custody from the stump coordinates to the importer the wood will be confiscated and the importer fined and possibly jailed.  For me this is all not a problem as I am the only one in the area able to work legally but the thousands of small land owners who would like to cut a few trees a year to feed their families rather than clearcut for subsistance farming are now back to forest destruction.  The bigger producers will now devote their efforts to cocaine production.

We also now have to have a GPS transmitter on any skidders, trucks, barges , boats and tugboats that handle anything to do with wood.  The WWF is paid by the US Government to think these things up and the US Government then makes a deal with the foreign countries to change their laws.  They do this under the title "Free Trade".  If you guys up there had the WWF and the others doing what they do to foreign countries by publicising flat lies you would hang them.
In the developing countries things are still fairly simple.  Non Profits do not originate here they all come here to steal.  Here we still have simple clean cut bribes.  Up there you dont have bribes any more you have Political Action Comitties, Consultants, Donations , Campaign Contributions etc. .  It will be a long time before the developing world makes corruption tax deductable as in the States.

Here are some interesting links , to many to post so just Google them.

FSC corruption and incompetence info , Google with quotation marks    " FSC watch"

Below this I will post a bit on the latest revision of the "Lacey Act".

Updated Lacey Act becomes world's first ban on illegal logging
Heath E. Combs -- Furniture Today, 6/24/2008 1:26:00 AM
Focus on supply chain could affect importers
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Importers of wood products may want to keep an eye on newly passed regulations in last month's farm bill. New amendments added to the Lacey Act aim to cut down on illegal logging.
Depending on how strongly the new provisions are enforced, the law could have implications for the furniture industry's supply chain.


© Environmental Investigation Agency
The timber depot in Suifenhe, China, on a standard day. Officials with the watchdog Environmental Investigation Agency said the area is one of heightened concern for illegal logging.
The legislation creates a requirement for importers to declare the species and country of origin of any plant or plant product, including wood.
Penalties range from $250 to in excess of $500,000 with a possibility of jail sentence for knowingly sourcing, or failing to exercise due care when sourcing, products that contain illegal timber or plants.Illegally logged wood is often defined as wood that is sold below market price or wood cut in violation of treaties, laws and regulations.
The amendments added by this year's farm bill to the Lacey Act are intended to protect forests worldwide from deforestation and illegal wood products from entering the United States.
The Lacey Act, originally signed into law in 1900, is a conservation law that focuses on illegal commercial transportation of wildlife and non-native species.
The new farm bill extended provisions to amendments added to the act in 1981 to address global illegal logging and trade.
"The key to the Lacey Act amendment is to provide a level playing field for U.S. forest products manufacturers," said Tom Inman, president of the Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Assn.
"There have been companies in recent years trading in illegal forest products, and estimates are that $460 million was lost last year in U.S. export sales because of illegally harvested wood."
Just what percentage of logging is done illegally remains unknown, but estimates peg the level at 10% or higher.  
Typically, illegal logs and lumber are purchased by factories for one-half the cost of legally harvested and documented wood products.
Officials with the Environmental Investigation Agency, a non-profit Washington- and United Kingdom-based environmental watchdog group, said that failure to adhere to the provisions would increase risk of seizure and forfeiture of products made with illegally sourced wood.
Import requirements haven't been issued yet but are likely to come out in the next six months, said David Groves, a spokesperson for EIA.
The bill will be jointly enforced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service.
The process of creating an interagency task force to help facilitate information flow and appropriations is still being worked on, Groves said.
Once the law is finalized, the U.S. Department of Justice is likely to look at importers and choose to try the cases they are most likely to win.
Groves said the law doesn't state requirements for how importers should show that wood is legally harvested, so no third-party certification is required.
That will leave importers with the responsibility of deciding if their products come from reputable wood sources.
For retailers and importers, the law has a flexible "due care" concept, which could cause larger importers to be held to a higher standard than smaller independent purchasers. Countries with a higher record of illegal logging could also be more closely targeted by the enforcement community than countries with stricter logging laws, Groves said.For example, big-box retailers could be expected to send groups to talk to long-term suppliers in source counties to make sure their wood is sourced responsibly, rather than relying strictly on paperwork."A mom-and-pop shop isn't going to be expected to go overseas," Groves said. "The main purpose of the declarations is to provide the most basic information to the enforcement community. If teak is coming from China, there was good chance it was cut in Burma and is illegally funding the junta."
With the passing of the law, the U.S. became the first country in the world to prohibit the import, sale or trade of illegally harvested wood and wood products.
Groves added that the new law is more stringent that the European Union's voluntary Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade, which targets countries that contain nearly 60% of the world's forests, namely Central Africa, Russia, Tropical South America and Southeast Asia.
"The U.S. has leapfrogged and taken the most significant steps toward addressing illegal logging," Groves said.
The EIA is most concerned about wood sourced from the following regions:
•   The Russian Far East, primarily the Primorky Region, which hangs over Far Eastern China and extends through Suifenhe City in the Heilongjiang province.
•   Russian timber moving through Manzhouli in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China.
•   Exotic species from Indonesia, specifically grown in areas such as Papua, New Guinea.



Tom

It is admirable for the importer to not buy illegal wood.  It's illegal for a mill in the U.S.A. to buy illegal wood (stolen wood) from a broker or logger.  What is wrong, and is a real conundrum, is that the importer should not be dictating to the exporter or exporting country, what is legal or illegal wood.  It's up to each country to make its own rules.

Certification allows any jackleg in the world to make the rules for an industry without regard to geographical or political lines.   That's one problem with it in the U.S.A., Certification has no regard for personal property.

jim king

Tom: 

You got the point exactly.  What causes real problems here is the fact that if you do a search on "Non Profits" you will find today over 34,100 pages of them on Google supposedly located here and working helping the people. On any given week there may be  here in Iquitos one visiting and having a good time on the boulavard.  None are legal that I know of.  Their efforts are directed at raising money for themselves screaming how bad things are.  Each web site asks for money.  Non Profits are big business.Google search 9 July 2008
Resultados 1 - 10 de aproximadamente 34,100 de "forestry ngo iquitos"  (0.24 segundos)

If you click on this you will find the website of the WWF showing their office here in Iquitos.
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/latin_america_and_caribbean/country/peru/index.cfmHere you can see their office at the address listed and it is a flour store giving away a free "T" shirt with the purchase of 10 bags of flour. They have no presence here what so ever.  And they are financed by your tax dollars and have a web page braging about that also that gives more false information paid for by your taxes.

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/latin_america_and_caribbean/country/peru/our_work/forests/index.cfm    Dont forget to click on how you can help.
                                     
                                              TFCA Debt-for-Nature Swap
Has provided leadership and support for the TFCA Debt-for-Nature Swap between the Peruvian and US Governments. Under this agreement, the US Government will relieve US$10.6 million of Peruvian debt over the next 12 years, in exchange for the Peruvian Government's direct payment of these funds to Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and WWF. Funds will be used to implement effective long-term management in priority protected areas
                                 WELCOME TO THE REAL WWF OFFICE AT
                                                  Calle Loreto 337, Iquitos
                                AS ADVERTISED BY THE WWF Today 9 July 2008







Wouldnt you like the FSC the sister company of this group to certify your wood ?¿
They are kind of like Robinhood but a small difference.  They rob from the rich and keep it because without the poor people they have no cause.

Tom

The WWF is the World Wrestling Federation up here. You can have them too.  :D :D

SwampDonkey

Hey now Tom. I'd like to see how Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea) is going to make out in the latest sham. Hmm accused of stalking your wife? How dare they smear Vince McMahon? :D

"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))


Tom

Jim,
The Officials in your government seem to have the same malady as some in ours.  They haven't figured out, yet, just who it is that they are supposed to be impressing.  When you let another country dictiate the rules in your home country, you are neither independent nor free.

Conservation is a plan driven by incentives, if you want to get the cooperation of the population.  Using punishment and heavy handedness just causes dissent.

The big business "non-profit" organizations should be outed by your government and run out of town as a priority to corralling the citizens.

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