DW - "Green" Certifications Of Wood & Pulp Ineffective At Best, Straight-Up Greenwashing At Worst
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During the nine-month investigation, reporters traced loggers' footprints across the world, speaking with hundreds of stakeholders and analyzing hundreds of documents in multiple languages. They found that at least 160 companies in Indonesia — one of the world's biggest tropical wood exporters — have disregarded environmental regulations over the past decade. Violations range from operating under false permits and illegal logging to the destruction of habitat used by elephants and the critically endangered Sumatran tiger.
Yet auditing firms responsible for vetting logging business seeking sustainability certification failed to report the violations. As a result, companies have kept their green labels, thereby misleading consumers. Similar irregularities came to light in Brazil. On its website, Mil Madeiras Preciosas, which makes timber products and manages more than half a million hectares of Amazon rainforest, claims it was "certified with flying colors". This, despite having been fined 36 times for environmental infractions since 1998. Deforestation Inc.also found that 54 FSC-certified companies in Brazil have been fined millions of dollars for committing environmental infractions. When ICIJ and partners approached the FSC for comment, the certifier said it was not aware of companies having been investigated and penalized. It said its standards "focus on forestry operations, and there may be many other environmental issues that are not covered".
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Jonathan White, a lawyer at ClientEarth with expertise in corporate responsibility and climate risk, says the unregulated space that is environmental auditing creates an accountability problem. "If those kinds of verification bodies are to fulfill a role that is kind of robust… they must apply skepticism and check claims made by companies. They must go behind the information that companies provide." Apart from annual administration fees, the FSC also relies on donations. FSC US, has received donations from global companies like Home Depot, Kimberly-Clark, Procter & Gamble, International Paper, all of which market their products as FSC-certified. The logo can be found stamped on a variety of everyday items, including notebooks, paper cups, furniture or even washing powders, among thousands of other products.
Many NGOs that were part of the Forest Stewardship Council from early on have left — including Greenpeace International. Simon Counsell helped establish the FSC but his growing frustration with the body led him to found FSC-watch.com, a platform where he and his team publish news related to the certifier's activities. He says there are "structural conflicts of interest" built into the system. The principal one being that forestry clients pay the auditors. "There is no oversight by FSC, there never has been. It is not a watchdog role that FSC has in this," said Counsell. And because an auditor can inspect the same client for years, Counsell says "cozy" relationships have formed in the three decades since the FSC was established.
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https://www.dw.com/en/deforestation-inc-how-green-firms-prevent-climate-action/a-64851705
