Helsinki,
Finland - In January 29, Greenpeace and the Finnish Nature League
published the report "Anything Goes? A Report on PEFC Certified
Finnish Forestry", which showed that the Finnish PEFC -endorsed
forest certification had not stopped the logging of forests of high
conservation value.
In
April 2001, PEFC -certified logging of Finland's last old-growth
forests continues. Greenpeace and the Finnish Nature League are
now bringing up new examples of PEFC -certified logging in high
conservation value forests as well as follow-up information on the
cases presented in the Anything Goes? - report. The Forest and Park
Service has implemented its logging plans in three of the forests
that were presented in the report released in January 2001. Eleven
more cases of high conservation value forest logging or logging
plans are released today on the internet site www.pefcwatch.org.
Pointing
out problems in the certification system has not resulted in any
improvements: the Finnish state enterprise Metsahallitus (Forest
and Park Service) has not given up any of their logging plans in
the ecologically valuable forests that were presented in the report.
Several ecologically detrimental logging plans presented in January
have been implemented in February - April 2001. Even known habitats
of endangered species have been logged and further logging has been
planned in several areas.
PEFC
-certification is claimed to be a proof of sustainable forestry
but the reality in the Finnish forests is far from sustainable:
PEFC systematically allows for the logging of old-growth forests
and known habitats of endangered species. Even forests that have
been defined irreplaceably valuable by the Forest Service itself
are being logged. PEFC -certified paper companies buy the timber
from these forests: over 50% of Forest and Park Service wood is
sold to Stora Enso. PEFC-logo holder UPM-Kymmene is the second biggest
customer of Forest and Park Service.
According
to researches performed by Finnish scientists, the forest protection
network in Finland is insufficient to preserve forest biodiversity.
Further protection is essentially needed in order to maintain biodiversity
in Finnish forests. Only 3,6% of productive forest land in Finland
is protected from logging. According to the Academy professor mr.
Ilkka Hanski from the University of Helsinki "all somewhat natural-state
old-growth forests should be left outside industrial forestry if
the aim is to prevent a mass extinction of species ".
The
Anything Goes? - report, new information, free high-resolution press
photos and video available at http://www.pefcwatch.org
More
information: Finnish Nature League, forest campaigner Sini Harkki,
harkki(@)sll.fi
tel. +358 50 582 1107
Matti
Liimatainen, Greenpeace forest campaigner matti.liimatainen(@)nordic.greenpeace.org
tel.
+358-50-346 2210