PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE Ancient Forest Victory, as Rainforest Action Network Yields, Commits to Review of FSC Support
- In a major victory for Ecological Internet and the world's ancient forests, RAN acknowledges concerns regarding FSC and commits to campaign to end all primary and old-growth logging October 16, 2008 By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/ CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Earth) -- Bowing to a global pressure campaign spearheaded by Ecological Internet (EI), the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has publicly announced they are reviewing their support for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), over concerns regarding FSC's greenwashing of ancient forest logging. In a statement to Ecological Internet, and on their web site, RAN announced they find "certification of logging in such forests extremely problematic" and have "raised the matter with the FSC". RAN has embraced EI's goal of working to end ancient forest logging, written to FSC with their concerns and to request more data, and indicated that FSC's continued certification of ancient forest logging is problematic and threatens their membership. Based upon this progress, Ecological Internet has temporarily suspended the protest campaign. If RAN fails in its commitment to work within FSC in coming months to end its certification of ancient forest logging, and refuses to resign from FSC at that time, EI's campaign will resume immediately. "Global ecological sustainability depends critically upon protecting and restoring large, unfragmented, and intact forest and other terrestrial ecosystems across the globe to maintain all species, climatic processes, human habitat and the biosphere's functioning. To this end, Ecological Internet's demands to RAN, and other long-time appeasers of FSC's ancient forest destruction, remain simple: either use your membership to get FSC to eliminate their sourcing of certified timbers from old-growth and primary forests, or resign immediately from FSC in protest and to end your complicity in ancient forest greenwash," explains EI President Dr. Glen Barry. ### MORE ### This is a huge victory for Ecological Internet's Earth Action Network -- who in the past year havs been ridiculed and rebuffed by RAN, Greenpeace, WWF and other unquestioning FSC supporters. EI is the only global ecological campaign network committed to an "ecological sufficiency" agenda, including stopping all ancient forest logging, 'certified' or otherwise, to maintain an operable climate and global ecosystems. Ending FSC's greenwashing, falsely suggesting ancient forest logging can be environmentally beneficial, is an essential first step in the forest protection movement's campaign to end ancient forest logging globally. This is an increasingly accessible goal given overwhelming evidence of abrupt climate change, extinction spasms and general ecosystem collapse. Following success with RAN and Friends of the Earth, the campaign will be extended to other FSC supporters. RAN's review must not only access FSC's official data regarding how much of their timber is from ancient forests, but also must look at trends over time and by forest type. Regardless of whether 35% or 80% of FSC's timber comes from ancient forests, it is certainly much higher in primary rainforests, and to be increasing to meet growing demand for "green" timber. RAN's review should be informed by the best science currently available regarding minimum global requirements for terrestrial ecosystem protection and restoration to maintain biodiversity, the climate, and biosphere. After Revel, the hard work begins. ###ENDS### Dr. Glen Barry is a global spokesperson on behalf of environmental sustainability policy. Ecological Internet provides the world's leading climate and rainforest portals at http://www.climateark.org/ and http://www.rainforestportal.org/ Dr. Barry frequently conducts interviews on the latest climate, forest and water policy developments and can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] DISCUSS RELEASE: http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2008/10/release_ancient_forest_victory.asp --- You are subscribed to ecological_internet as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Before unsubscribing, please consider modifying your list profile at: http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/subscribe/[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or click here: http://email.ecoearth.info:81/u?id=84041H&n=T&c=F&l=ecological_internet To subscribe visit: http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/subscribe/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
