The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Greenpeace are among a group of organisations arguing that Ireland should be stripped of its Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) accreditation, along with countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and South Africa.
Accreditation by the FSC is used by wood suppliers worldwide as a guarantee that timber has not come from illegal or unsustainable logging. It will recommend that the policy of certifying plantation forestry, such as that practised by Coillte, Ireland’s state-owned forestry company, be stopped.
Plantation forestry involves industrial-scale deforestation and the use of fertilisers that pollute soil and water. In Ireland it has been found to acidify soil and damage biodiversity.
Jutta Kill of Fern, a Brussels-based forestry organisation, said formal requests to revoke Ireland’s FSC certificate…