ROBIN WOOD demands an immediate stop to the destruction of Swedish natural forests

Pulp concern SCA receives thousands of protest letters

In Sweden, forests with high conservation value are still being destroyed by clear-cutting methods. Forest companies certified by the FSC are participating in the destruction, even violating the regulations of the certification.

For many years Swedish environmental organisations have reported destruction of natural forests and breaches to the FSC standard carried out by the SCA. Together with the Swedish partner organisation SSNC (Swedish Society for Nature Conservation), ROBIN WOOD is visiting Sundsvall in Sweden, the headquarters of the SCA forest concern, to deliver five and a half thousand protest signatures against the destruction of natural forests. With this action, ROBIN WOOD wants to make it clear that the forest practices of the large companies in Sweden sparks criticism in Germany. Germany is one of the biggest buyers of Swedish pulp and paper.

After decades of intense clear cutting forestry in Sweden, only less than ten percent of the forest area is still conserved in a near-natural state. Only a fraction of this is legally protected. The conservation of these near-natural or natural forests is one of the most important demands of Swedish environmental associations to save the forest biodiversity. More than 1800 forest dependent species are red listed, many of them endangered because of the intensive forestry.

The FSC certification (Forest Stewardship Council) favoured by environmental associations is the only set of rules in Sweden that demands the complete conservation of woodland key habitat and forests with high conservation values. In 1998 Swedish environmental associations and the big forest companies agreed on the FSC standard. Neither the Swedish forest law nor the forest certificate PEFC, that was created by the forest owners, oblige to a comprehensive conservation of forests with high value for biodiversity.

For the past couple of years, environmentalists in Sweden have been sending reports that forest companies certified by the FSC, like Stora Enso, Holmen Skog, Sveaskog or – most frequently – SCA frequently violate the FSC standards regulations. This is substantiated among others by two research reports of the SSNC, the largest Swedish environmental association.

“It is unacceptable that FSC certified companies are destroying natural forests under the flag of the certification. We want SCA to know that this reckless forest practice is strongly condemned – also in their main sales area Germany“, says Rudolf Fenner, Forest Campaigner of the environmental organisation ROBIN WOOD. “The German consumers do not want to become accomplices of the destruction of old growth forests in Sweden."

Contact:

Rudolf Fenner, ROBIN WOOD Forest Department, tel. on site: 0151 / 52 49 14 14; wald(at)robinwood.de

Ute Bertrand, ROBIN WOOD Press Office, tel. ++49 (0)40 380 892-22, presse(at)robinwood.de

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For background information:

http://www.robinwood.de/Protest.577.0.html

 

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