|
PRESS
RELEASE March 23,1999
Shareholders
demand that Stora Enso environmental policy be unified
Helsinki,
Finland - Four individual shareholders demand the Finnish-Swedish
forest giant Stora Enso to abandon procurement of old-growth forest
timber and to certify its Finnish forest holdings according to the
Forest Stewardship Council criteria. The shareholders' proposals will
be considered today at the Stora Enso annual meeting held in Marina
Congress Center in Helsinki. Stora Enso will publish the joint company's
environmental policy in April.
Different
criteria in Finland and Sweden
Stora
Enso has FSC-certified its forest holdings in Sweden. According to
the FSC-certification standard the company's old-growth forests and
other key biotopes in Sweden will not be logged. FSC-certification
also means the company has commited to a procurement policy, which
avoids old-growth forest timber from other areas . This policy in
Sweden has not yet influenced company's forest management and wood
procurement policies in Finland. "Part of the shareholders of
the new company have supported a more advanced environmental policy
than what has been customary in Finland", states shareholder
mr. Matti Ikonen.
FSC is
at the moment the only certification system that really provides steps
towards more ecological forestry practices and it is therefore the
only credible system according to the environmental NGOs. FSC is also
the only certification system in which environmental organizations
are equally represented.
Stora
Enso is the biggest user of Finnish old-growth forest timber
Stora
Enso is the biggest buyer from the state enterprise Finnish Forest
and Park Service (FPS). FPS holds hundreds of valuable old-growth
forest areas in Eastern and Northern Finland that are logged as normal
commercial forests.
Stora
Enso has committed to a vast old-growth logging moratorium in Russian
Karelia. The primary Dutch customers of the Finnish forest industry
have already twice demanded an old-growth logging moratorium in Finland.
For
more information, please contact the shareholders
Mr Matti
Ikonen tel +358-9-68 444 210, mobile +358-400-25 77 55 email: ikonen(@)sll.fi
Mr Otso Ovaskainen tel. +358-50-309 2795 email: otso(@)sll.fi
Information
on old-growth destruction in Finland is available on the website of
the Finnish Nature League at: http://www.luontoliitto.fi/forest
|