FSC in Laos

Subject: FSC in Laos
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:52:45 +0100
From: Chris Lang
To: Richard Donovan (Rainforest Alliance/SmartWood)
CC: smartwood@….id, FSC-Watch, Ricardo Carrere (WRM)

Korean company to set up plantation in Laos

According to a report in the Korean Herald, the South Korean Withus Lao Company has signed a 30-year concession for a 15,000 hectare eucalyptus plantation in Vientiane province. More than 90 per cent of the timber will be exported.

The US$150 million investment also includes more than 150 kilometres of roads, a new ferry port and a timber processing factory.

A note on the FSC certification of forests in Laos

Ben Hodgdon send me this paper: “A note on the FSC certification of forests in Laos” and asked me to post it on this blog.*

Laos: What did SmartWood know when it issued the certificate?

By Chris Lang. Published in WRM Bulletin 111, October 2006.

A leaked report earlier this year indicated serious problems in an FSC certified logging operation. FSC’s certifier, SmartWood, was oblivious to the problems – at the time the report was written, they hadn’t visited the forests they’d certified for three years.

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FSC certification in Savannahkhet, Laos – reply from SmartWood

From: Richard Donovan
To: Chris Lang
Cc: Jeffrey Hayward (SmartWood), Loy Jones (SmartWood Asia Pacific Regional Manager), Hubert Bonafos (ASI), Heiko Liedeker, FSC
Date: 24.10.2006 00:04
Subject: FSC certification in Savannahkhet, Laos – response from SmartWood

FSC certification in Laos

From: William Magrath (World Bank)
To: Chris Lang
Cc: Björn Roberts (Tropical Forest Trust), Christian Sloth (Rainforest Alliance/SmartWood), Harri Seppänen (Ramboll Finnconsult), Heiko Liedeker (FSC), Hugh Blackett (Tropical Forest Trust), Hilary Thompson (Tropical Forest Trust), Jeffrey Hayward (Rainforest Alliance/SmartWood), Loy Jones (Rainforest Alliance/SmartWood), Marko Katila (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland), Rod Taylor (WWF Indonesia), Simon Greenaway (Tropical Forest Trust), Scott Poynton (Tropical Forest Trust), Tensie Whelan (Rainforest Alliance/SmartWood), Richard Donovan (Rainforest Alliance/SmartWood), Bouahong Phanthanousi (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, SUFORD National Project Coordinator) Jussi Viitanen (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland) Matti Junnila (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland)
Date: 19.10.2006 17:07

Snapshots of ADB disasters

Snapshots of ADB disasters is a new publication from NGO Forum on ADB showing the impacts of some of the Asian Development Bank’s projects. In Laos, the impacts of the ADB’s projects are particularly severe. Four of the projects are in Laos: the East-West Corridor Project, the Nam Theun 2 and Theun Hinboun dams and the ADB’s two projects supporting industrial tree plantations.

TFT response to Laos article

Scott Poynton, Executive Director of Tropical Forest Trust responded yesterday to my article in last month’s WRM Bulletin about the certification of logging in Laos.

FSC response to Laos article

FSC has responded to my article in last month’s WRM Bulletin about their certification of logging in Laos. SmartWood will carry out an audit of the operations in October 2006.

Say goodbye to the forests – Here comes Oji Paper

By Chris Lang. Published in Watershed, June 2006.

Oji Paper, one of the world’s largest pulp and paper companies, is moving into the Mekong Region. Oji Paper has established large-scale industrial tree plantation projects in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Here and elsewhere in the world the results are deforestation and destroyed livelihoods as the company replaces villagers’ forest and common land with its monocultures.

Read more >>