EcoLabelling:

1
Eco-Labelling Threats and Opportunities
For The Future of Eco-labelling in Australia
Conference By Geoff Law, Wilderness
Society October 2003
2
Eco-labelling must take into account the
political and social context it purports to
address. Consumers want wood thats not from
oldgrowth forests tuna from nets that dont
although snare dolphins and organic products
that truly do not use chemicals. Companies
which use eco-labelling systems that avoid public
demands do so at their peril.
March through the Styx, July 2003. S. Rosewarne
3
When advocating various eco-labelling schemes the
Tasmanian logging industry wishes to replace
scenes such as this
Coupe near Geeveston, March 1999. G. Law
4
and this (poisoning of native possums,
wallabies and other marsupials)
Styx Valley, Sept 2000. Rob Blakers
5
and this (destruction of part of the South-West
wilderness)
Styx Valley, G. Law
6
with this. Companies using eco-labelling want
consumer concerns about the environment to be
immediately mollified by a recognised logo.
Public confidence in the logo is the key.
7
When carried out conscientiously, eco-labelling
can provide critical information and choice to
consumers
8
however, some corporations use eco-labelling to
confuse or obfuscate. For example, some schemes
offer nothing more than a set of bland, innocuous
and, most important of all, complicated
motherhood statements which technocrats and spin
doctors can apply to almost any situation.
SECTION 1 Scope and General 1.1 Scope This
Interim Standard sets out for an organisation the
criteria and requirements for Chain of Custody
(CoC) certification for wood or timber products
originating from a defined forest area (DFA) that
has been certified to the Australian Forestry
Standard AS 4708(Int).2003. Generally, an
organisation will be responsible for the
certified wood or timber products from the point
at which the organisation takes ownership or
control to the point at which the organisation
delivers certified wood or timber products to the
next organisation in the link of the value chain
that covers from the forest to the end consumer.
1.2 Objective The objective of this Interim
Standard is to provide for a common approach to
track the pathway that wood or timber products
take from the DFA to the final consumer as an end
product and which covers all of the linkages in
the value chain including manufacturing,
transformation and distribution. The anticipated
outcome from the use of such a standard is to
give confidence to all organisations in the value
chain that they are dealing with a certified
forest product from its receipt by their
organisation to delivery to the next organisation
in the value chain. This recognises that there
may be one or several stages in the value chain
from a tree in the DFA to final product and that
ownership of the certified product may also
change at times along the value chain. 1.3
Application This Interim Standard is intended to
apply to the various certified wood or timber
products that may be available from the DFA or as
a result of processing wood from a DFA. Examples
include, but are not limited to, the following
wood products, such as unprocessed logs,
poles, piles, woodchips timber products that
arise directly from manufacturing, such as sawn
timber, plywood, pulp by-products that arise
indirectly from manufacturing or
re-manufacturing, such as wood chips, shavings
and sawdust and timber products that arise
from re-manufacturing or composition processes,
such as paper, paper board, composite board,
furniture, doors, window frames. 1.4 Recognition
Chain of custody processes, especially those
that have third-party auditing requirements,
which have been developed according to or are
consistent with, the requirements of national and
9
The Australian conservation movement has
experienced cases where undesirable eco-labelling
schemes have been imposed by Government and
industry. For example, in Tasmania, one of the
environment movements first encounters with
eco-labelling was the Forest Certification
Conference organised by parts of the logging
industry in October 2000.
10
The Wilderness Society organised a protest
against this conference and planned to intercept
delegates on a field trip to the forests. The
protest received national coverage and Forestry
Tasmania cancelled the field trip.

• Newspaper clipping

11
An attempt by the national government and state
forestry agencies to establish an eco-labelling
scheme to legitimise contentious forestry
operations was the Australian Forestry Standard,
of which Minister Wilson Tuckey was a great
champion. This is another example of an
undesirable eco-labelling scheme being imposed
upon the community.
12
ENGOs urge boycott of Tuckeys New York Conference
We the undersigned representatives of Australian
conservation NGOs are writing to you to express
our opposition to the approach taken by our
Federal Minister for Forestry and Conservation,
Mr. Wilson Tuckey, to regulate independent forest
certification schemes at the international level.
As you may know, Minister Tuckey has invited a
number of government representatives to meet in
New York in November to discuss the creation of
an intergovernmental mechanism to regulate the
operation of private, voluntary, non-governmental
certification programs. However, Minister Tuckey
has decided not to invite any non-governmental
representatives, or in fact anyone who is
directly involved in operating a certification
program. We believe the closed nature of this
meeting is highly inappropriate. Full
transparency, and the meaningful consultation and
participation of relevant stakeholders have been
acknowledged by many institutions, including the
Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, as essential
components in credible forest certification and
labelling schemes. Despite these widely accepted
criteria, to date no Australian NGOs have been
approached by the Australian Federal Government
to seek their support for Minister Tuckey's
initiative. Nor has the Australian general public
been made aware of this scheme, we believe
because the Minister knows it lacks fundamental
credibility. Due in part to forest policies
advocated by Minister Tuckey and others,
certification has become a very controversial
issue in Australia. We believe Minister Tuckey
may be attempting to elevate our domestic
controversies into the international arena by
asking other governments to support his ill-
advised proposal. We feel this would represent a
serious divergence from recent directions in the
international forest policy debate, and will
surely trigger widespread NGO opposition. For
these reasons we respectfully request that your
government declines Mr Tuckey's invitation to
attend the New York meeting.
Sincerely Yours, Tim Cadman, Native Forest
Network Beth Schultz, Conservation Council of
WAPeter Sims, Tarkine National CoalitionCam
Walker, Friends of the EarthHarriett Swift, Bega
ChipstopVirginia Young, The Wilderness
SocietyRod Anderson, Environment VictoriaJohn
Poppins, Amcor Green ShareholdersJill Redwood,
Concerned Residents of East GippslandPeter
Robertson, West Australian Forest AllianceNoel
Plum, National Parks Association of New South
WalesBill Peisley, Project Officer, Rainforest
Information CentreLeonie Van der Maesen, FoE
AustraliaSusie Russel, Co-ordinator, North East
Forest AllianceSue Arnold, Australians for
Animals
For these reasons we respectfully request that
your government declines Mr Tuckey's invitation
to attend the New York meeting.
When Minister Tuckey attempted to organise a
conference in New York, to further the AFS,
Australian environment groups urged a boycott.
This is an example of an eco-labelling scheme
itself becoming a product that is subject to a
boycott.
13
When the AFS was eventually launched, it failed
to win any support from the environment movement
and has consequently suffered a major lack in
credibility.
14
The lesson to Mr Tuckeys successors is when
companies and governments attempt to duck crucial
environmental issues, or to sideline relevant
community groups, those community groups will
enthusiastically kick the wheels off the
offending eco-labelling scheme.
15
Debate over the validity of particular
eco-labelling schemes will simply become the next
environmental battlefield. Undesirable
eco-labels will be subject to consumer boycotts
by the conservation movement. Environmentally
sound eco-labelling schemes will be
enthusiastically endorsed. Major debate between
governments, companies and NGOs will accompany
every proposed new eco-labelling scheme.
16
There is currently discussion within the
conservation movement about the extent to which
FSC should be applied to sources of timber
products in Australia. This is an eco-labelling
scheme which has developed enormous credibility
around the world.
   Building Bridges towards Responsible
Forestry                               Construye
ndo Puentes para el Manejo                       
                    Responsable de los Bosques
17
But even the FSC as a system is coming under
increasing scrutiny and criticism
internationally. This report by the Rainforest
Foundation itemised systemic problems with the
FSC, including compromised auditing and
inappropriate certifications.
18
A report by The Rainforest Foundation has found
the FSC eco-labelling system wanting in many
respects.
19
In Australia there are very real doubts as to
whether the FSC system, which focuses on
management of timber extraction operations, is
relevant when most of the debate is about
whether areas of native forest should be logged
at all.
Threatened oldgrowth forests, Styx. G. Law
20
What will FSC do for this part of Tasmanias
North-East Highlands, whose precipitous slopes
have been scheduled for cable-logging? The
National Forest Summit, a regular meeting of all
major forest campaign groups, has decided that in
Australia FSC should apply only to plantations
and not to native forest.
North-East Highlands. G. Law
21
Mitsubishis attitude has shown how the entire
eco-labelling system for an industry sector can
become debased. The company has publicly
proclaimed its support for FSC principles

• November 11, 2002Mitsubishi Corporation Supports
  Forest Stewardship Council Certification
• TOKYO (November 11, 2002) - Mitsubishi
  Corporation (MC) Chairman Minoru Makihara has
  announced MC's policy of endorsing third party
  certification for all of its forest product
  operations. Supporting the Forest Stewardship
  Council's principles (FSC), Makihara stated that
  it would seek FSC certification of such MC
  operations wherever practical.

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but when confronted with the realities of
Tasmanian logging operations, it responded by
justifying its ongoing consumption of Tasmanian
woodchips by referring to a grab bag of
eco-labelling schemes. In the narrowest
interpretation of the market (ie Gunns and
Mitsubishi), it could be argued that these
eco-labelling schemes met their objective.

• However, we have received word that there is
  absolutely no basis to the claims which your
  group has put forward. According to the report
  received from Gunns Ltd., they are conducting
  business activities in compliance with the
  Regional Forest Agreement (RFA). Furthermore, in
  addition to being granted ISO 14001 certification
  by the International Organization for
  Standardization, Gunns Ltd. intends to acquire
  the Australian Forest Standard (AFS) in August
  and the Pan European Forest Certification (PEFC)
  in December of this year. We believe that Gunns
  Ltd.'s attitude toward the preservation of
  sustainable forest resources is recognized not
  only within Australia but internationally as
  well.
• Letter from Mitsubishi to The Wilderness Society,
  
• August 2003, following meeting in Japan in July
  2003.

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But Mitsubishis attitude provides short-term
relief at the expense of long-term confidence by
the public in eco-labelling schemes. The truth
of environmental destruction will always be
exposed. When the public experiences major
dissonance between the claims of an eco-labelling
scheme and the ugly reality on the ground, it
will only create increased scepticism, cynicism
and distrust about eco-labelling schemes
generally.
August 13, 2003
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The Wilderness Society (Tas) Inc. 130 Davey
St Hobart TAS 7000 Ph 03 6224 1550 Fax 03 6223
5112 Email tasmania_at_wilderness.org.au
www.wilderness.org.au/tasmania