Eco-Journal, v.17.5 Nov/Dec 2007Eco-Journal, v.17.5 Nov/Dec 2007
Detail of about half the 9,000 square kilometres of FML 1, east of the Hollow Water and Black River First Nations . Map by Tembec
By Dave Nickarz
On October 11, 2007, Tembec held an Open House seeking input into their 2009 to 2028 twenty-year logging plan. Just the day before, Tembec received Forest Stewardship Council certification as responsible managers of Forest Management License area 1 (FML 1), the 9,000 square kilometers of public land located east of the southern basin of Lake Winnipeg.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) bills itself as an international organization that brings people together to find solutions that promote responsible stewardship of the world´s forests. FSC accredits independent third party organizations to certify forest managers and forest product producers to FSC standards. Smartwood is one of those third parties, and they have certified Tembec in Manitoba. FSC includes conservation groups like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund.
There have been rumblings in the forest conservation movement about FSC for several years-questions about whether or not it really is changing the way forestry is done in the world. I´ve been involved in the forest conservation movement for 17 years and have seen way too many clear cuts in my time. I must admit that I was hopeful at the prospect of the FSC being a way out of our current industrial forestry model that is doing so much damage to the boreal forest in Manitoba. (For more about FSC and Tembec see Eric Reder´s article in the January/February 2007 edition of the Eco-Journal).
Certification according to mill requirements
At the Open House, I spent a lot of time with Vince Keenan, Divisional Forester for the Tembec mill in Pine Falls. He eagerly told me about their plans to maintain levels of older forests through their computer modeling. He told me that Tembec has goals for maintaining older forest types on FML 1. One example is lowland Black Spruce forests; the ones with the deep sphagnum moss. Tembec´s goal is to maintain 22% of lowland Black Spruce as old trees—meaning over 100 years in age. That sounds great until you look at the forest inventory map and see that 43% of lowland Black Spruce trees are already classified as old. What that means is they plan to cut down half of the old Spruce trees—which happens to be the majority species required to make paper in their Pine Falls mill—in the next twenty years. For all the conservation-speak of the FSC Boreal Standards, the measurement used to decide if Tembec´s operations qualify for FSC certification, it turns out the forest will be carved up according to what the mill requires.
As far back as 2001, research published by Nicole Freris and Klemens Laschefski expressed this very concern about the FSC certification scheme; “The environmental sector of FSC uses its pressure to progressively tighten the criteria for certification, reducing the volume of wood extracted. However for certified companies to be economically viable production quotas need to be maintained.’ (1)
At Tembec´s Open House what I found was more of the same problems we always find with forestry in Manitoba. There was no indication of fundamental change in the way Tembec plans to clear -cut log, make paper or respect protected areas. Tembec will continue to clear cut as its sole means of tree harvesting, which Manitoba´s Deputy Premier Rosann Wowchuk insisted must be stopped some 14 years ago.(2) Tembec will still get its wood from Whiteshell, Nopiming, and Duck Mountain provincial parks, an illegal practice across most of this country. Tembec will continue to use herbicides like Vision (a Roundup product) to suppress the growth of hardwood trees after logging, a practice that has been banned in many jurisdictions across Canada. They will also continue to operate in the habitat of threatened species like Woodland Caribou and rare species like the Green and Mink Frogs.
Over the past several years, Tembec has violated the Wildlife Guidelines by clearcutting larger areas than allowed. This has resulted in repeated warnings and fines. In 2006 Tembec was fined $10,000 for violating the Wildlife Guidelines for a clearcut in Nopiming Provincial Park. Instead of complying with the law, Tembec is currently lobbying the province to weaken the guidelines. The only difference between what Tembec is doing now and how they operated 8 years ago is that they can display a logo that misleads consumers into thinking Tembec´s operations are more ‘responsibly managed´.
Pat Popp is a deer hunter and outfitter, one of many individuals whose livelihood is affected by Tembec´s logging. Popp was not impressed by Tembec´s plan. “We´re talking 20 years here. I was hoping to see a commitment to phasing out some of their more destructive practices, like clear cutting and spraying herbicides, but the only thing they seem intent on doing is to keep destroying as much wilderness as possible to feed their mill. How FSC can certify an operation that clear cuts massive areas, use herbicides, and is one of the worst polluters in the province, is beyond me,’ said Popp.
A New Authority
The FSC has become a new authority in the forest. I find myself asking questions of the certification company, Smartwood, as if they are a government agency. I have found I need to aggressively lobby them to get my concerns about what is happening in our forests addressed. I was refused a list of problems found before Tembec´s certification by Alexandre Boursier, a regional manager of the certification company Smartwood.
I am not the first to question the legitimacy of the FSC. Some forest activists now find themselves in the unenviable position of lobbying a large conservation group to protect old growth and primary forests.
In July 2007 the ‘e-activist´ network Ecological Internet launched a letter-writing campaign aimed at Greenpeace, asking them to withdraw their support for FSC-certified ‘ancient forest logging´. The campaign demanded that Greenpeace publish a report on questionable FSC certificates, which is believed to have been under investigation by the green group for many months, but has remained unreleased.
If the FSC meant even a marginal benefit to forests then I could see the need to support the effort. As to the legitimacy of the FSC, in terms of a true effective effort to protect forests, I assert that it has failed.
Notes:
1. Seeing the Wood from the Trees, By Nicole Freris and Klemens Laschefski, The Ecologist Vol. 31, No 6, July/August 2001
2. Manitoba Legislative Assembly Oral Question Period, July 19, 1993