Veracel's FSC Certification

For many years WRM has been denouncing the FSC certification of monoculture tree plantations. The scale of these monocultures is one of several reasons for such opposition. Large-scale tree plantations occupy vast areas of land leading to displacement of communities, they consume huge amounts of water and soil nutrients and require enormous amounts of agrochemicals. These characteristics make them intrinsically unsustainable and therefore they can’t be certified as ‘sustainable’.

Civil society organizations are denouncing the FSC certification of Fibria Celulose SA monoculture tree plantations by IMAFLORA, a Brazilian certification body. The organization’s demands are aimed at supporting the social and environmental battle carried out by the populations suffering the effects of cellulose plant projects, in this particular case, those by the firm Fibria (formerly Aracruz Celulose).

Dear friends, We would like to invite you to support the following action, which is being launched as part of the activities for the International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations. This action is being coordinated by our friends at CEPEDES in Brazil, who have been working for years to support and coordinate resistance to the expansion of monoculture eucalyptus plantations and the pulp mill owned by Veracel Celulose.

FSC announced that its Accreditation Services (ASI) would be "conducting a Forest [sic] Management surveillance audit of SGS at Veracel in Brazil between the 26th-28th of March 2008". Within the framework of the evaulation process, the Social Environmental Forum of the Extreme South of Bahia was invited to take part in the Evaluation process, below their answer:  To Mr. André de Freitas, Cc.: FSC-Brasil/FSC-Internacional

By the WRM -

Press Release - September 17 - 2007

We have recently learnt that Veracel has launched a process to obtain FSC certification for its plantations. It has hired the consulting company SGS for this purpose.

Veracel - which belongs to the Swedish-Finnish company Stora Enso and the Norwegian-Brazilian company Aracruz Celulose - is attempting to obtain certification for its plantations established over 78,000 hectares in the extreme south of the State of Bahia and its impacts are causing major local resistance.

Dear FSC Board members and Director We are writing to you in relation to the upcoming consultation process to be carried out by SGS from 23-27 July as part of the certification process of Veracel’s plantations in Bahia, Brazil.