SOS! National Day of Action to Save Our Southern Forests

On November 13th, as the wood products industry meets in Chesapeake, VA to celebrate the destruction and export of our incredible forests, people from across the US are coming together for a National Day of Action to send an SOS to Save Our Southern forests. With 20 existing wood pellet facilities and 33 proposed, it’s crucial that we show EU policymakers that the biomass industry is bad for our environment, our communities and our economy. Join us in sending an SOS of more than 10,000 messages to EU policymakers.

Environmental Paper Network, Paper Products and Biomass

Early this month, Dogwood Alliance was proud to attend the Environmental Paper Network’s 2014 Fall Steering Committee meeting in Boulder, Colorado. Environmental Paper Network (EPN) began in 2002 as an unlikely alliance of organizations with very diverse approaches to a common problem — addressing the scale of the challenges and opportunities for social justice and conservation presented by the expanding forest, pulp and paper industry. It should come as no surprise that with 15 years of history working to transform the pulp and paper industry in the US South, Dogwood Alliance was one of the founding partners of the EPN.

Everyone’s Environment Conference: A Successful First Step in Diversity Building

I feel so lucky to have worked with the Center for Diversity Education at UNCA on the planning committee for the first annual Everybody’s Environment Conference at the Wesley Grant Southside Community Center here in Asheville. I’m also grateful that Dogwood was able to be a sponsor. Our goal was to bring diversity to the local conservation community.

Community Resistance: Standing against Biomass Destruction and Inequality on Blog Action Day

The biomass industry is one more instance of the corporate greed that concentrates wealth in the top 1% of our society, increasing inequality while ravaging the resources of and giving little in return to the communities that bear the consequences. On Blog Action Day 2014, Dogwood Alliance highlights and applauds the community power and resistance that is growing in opposition to biomass and calls on policy makers and biomass corporate executives to stop destroying our forests and our communities. We call on Enviva to halt destructive practices and invest in solutions that work in partnership with communities and the environment.

New York Declaration on Forests: Where Does Burning Forests for Electricity Fit in? It Doesn’t.

It’s encouraging to see forests emerge as a major point of focus with the release of the New York Declaration on Forests. Since launching the Our Forests Aren’t Fuel campaign last year, I have been scratching my head in disbelief about the contradiction that exists when it comes to global forest climate policies. Over recent years, there has been a suite of initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions from forest loss and degradation, which admittedly accounts for 20% of global carbon emissions. As part of the New York Declaration of Forests, three European nations – UK, Norway and Germany – announced increased global funding for reducing deforestation and increasing forest conservation.