…to join fellow international forest activists at the FSC General Assembly this summer!
This year Dogwood Alliance will be attending the tri-annual General Assembly in Seville, Spain, marking the 20th anniversary of Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) efforts to bring different stakeholders together to find a sustainable future for the world’s forests and the people who inhabit them. This is an exciting opportunity to get together with forest activists and other FSC members and stakeholders from around the world, including many forest products companies from the US South that we have been working with for years. In addition, Dogwood is planning to use this critical platform to focus attention on issues important to Southern Forests and work to strengthen the system moving forward. This international forum will also give us a great chance to speak to a broad audience about the Our Forests Aren’t Fuel campaign and the global connections driving forest destruction from the fast-growing biomass pellet industry here in the US.
One of Dogwood Alliance’s most important tools for protecting forests is the FSC forest management certification system. The FSC sets strict guidelines and standards to ensure good forest management on working forest lands. Every year 5 or 6 million acres are logged across the South. So making sure logging is done responsibly (in the right place and in the right way) is critical. Nature is generous, and FSC is a necessity to maintain the amazing beauty and world-class conservation values of this landscape.
Because forest management certification is so important, Dogwood Alliance has worked hard in our public campaigns to get large paper users like McDonald’s, Staples and Office Depot to commit to purchase FSC certified paper and large pulp. We also got huge paper companies like International Paper to buy certified wood and produce FSC products. Dogwood’s Executive Director Danna Smith serves on the FSC US Board of Directors, and I serve on a FSC Working Group.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/00aOdYxUQB8[/youtube]
I see that you may have visited Spain this past year. I am a District Ranger on Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. I will be visiting Seville and Granada, Spain, this May, 2015 (vacation). I have learned that I will be to early for the cork harvest. Is there anything you or your members would recommend I see to learn how they manage the forest in Spain?
Thank you;
Thom Haines