Mega-forestry
A side meeting about FSC certification for mega forestry operations turned into a discussion about whether large concession areas with intact forest landscapes are FSC certifiable at all.
Greenpeace’s suggestion to implement a moratorium on FSC certification of intact forest landscapes was met with vibrant responses by stakeholders.
Greenpeace asked if it is justified to use large intact forest landscapes for production, taking into account the risk of serious biodiversity loss and the lack of benefit for local communities. Local stakeholders from Africa and Russia shared the opinion that while FSC is not a perfect system, it is the best available tool so far for at least partial protection of many intact forest areas. In their view, a moratorium for FSC certification is not a solution as without FSC certification the areas will be logged anyway, often with the use of practices far below the standards of FSC certified operations.
It seems like the FSC community is once again facing the choice between using FSC as a tool to improve existing logging practices - or not having any impact on the logging in intact forest areas at all.
