After having read this rather lenghty treatise on forest certification, I
was sure to remind myself what entities were responsible for it's
creation: the Forestry School in British Columbia, and their counterparts
at a Malaysian University. Few in the conservation movement would argue
that the governments of Malaysia and British Columbia have much at stake
in the battle *against* certification as their country's respective
policies towards indigenous peoples and sustainable forestry are
atrocious. In British Columbia, for example, the BC government is the
largest shareholder in the country's largest timber company;
McMillan-Bloedel. Talk about a conflict of interest!
For too long the conservation and environmental communtiy have
fought their battles in court, and despite our numerous victories, we
have lost sight of the fact that the timber industry, and the governments
beholden to them, are really only interested in the bottom line. Ethical
and moral considerations are never considered, and policies and laws are
easily weakened, avoided, changed, or ignored (as with the suspending of
50 years of environmental laws via the so-called salvage rider). For
those of us concerned with preserving our forests as intact ecosystems
for future generations, we must focus on the one achilles heal of the
industry...profits. "When you've got them by the balls, their hearts and
minds willm follow," said one famous U.S. Army general. The same thing
applies to the timber industry--they can't make money if people aren't
buying their products.
This will mark the new style of warfare as the protectors battle
the exploiters into the next century--the focus on consumers instead of
bought and paid for politicians. People will demand that forest products
come from sustainably managed forests that place equal value on the
indigenous peoples and plant/animal forms that inhabit the forests, as
well as the long-term health and viablity of true forests, not the world
full of profitable tree-farms that the industry desires.
Thus is shold come as no surprise that Malaysia and BC are
fighting forest certification as their current forestry practices by and
large epitomize the myth of unregulated sustainable industrial forestry.
Bret Diamond
Oregon, USA
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