GLAND. Switzerland — "For the past 30 years, environmentalists have been guilty of seriously misleading the public." confesses Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud. Forests Officer at WWF-World Wide Fund for Nature. "Right up to the mid-1980s, northern conservation organizations got away with saying: "There are serious problems facing the world's forests and people, but if you give us your money, we'll save them.'"

The response was gratifying. Cash was relatively plentiful in those pre-recession years, and Americans and Europeans dipped willingly into their pockets and purses. Everyone felt good. Environmentalists because funds were flowing into conservation projects, the public because consciences were eased and they could sleep at night, secure in the knowledge that they had done their bit to save the world.

Ten years on. however, conservationists — and the public — are beginning to realize that the world is very far from being saved. Simply pouring money Into efforts to stop people cutting down the Amazonian rainforest is not enough. To save the forests, we must change the way we manage our forests and trade the products they provide.

In the old days, green-linged members of the public looked on the timber industry as a pariah, responsible tor the virtual extinction of irees such as the Brazilian mahogany. Eagerly, they latched on to calls to boycott tropical hardwoods and shun companies with logging interests.

Now. the eco-minded must face up to the fact that if they really want to save forest. the lies! solution could be to make sure that they and their friends and colleagues buy timber from reputable sources. i •

Many timber companies have woken up to the fact that more and more consumers are asking for "green" products. Customers want to know that the greetings cards and bookshelves they are buying come from sustainably" managed forests, in response, traders in wood products have rushed to put labels on their wares announcing that they are eco-friendly.

Unfortunately, many of those labels are unreliable, and the consumer has no guarantee that the claims they make are valid. To provide that guarantee, those claims must be verified by an unbiased, independent body.

But what should that body consist of? Conservationists? Timber traders? People liv ing in and around forests? Timber certification compa nies? In 1993. a group of people from all these disparate fields tried to come up with a solution. The result was the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

The FSC has now drawn up and agreed on a set of principles and criteria for good forest management. Companies trading products from forest managed according to these principles and criteria will receive the FSC

stamp of approval. Customers buying products carrying an FSC-approved certificate can therefore rest assured that they were produced using "responsible" forestry techniques.

The council is currently in the process of accrediting certifiers which have themselves certified more than 4 million hectares of forests in Costa Rica, Honduras. Indonesia, the UK and the US. A number of retailers in the UK and US are already selling wood and wood products from these forests.

Among these are companies belonging to WWF-UK's 1995 Group: 54 British companies that trade in forest products. More than 25 million customers shop in the group s stores each week, which between them trade well over $1.5 billion worth of wood products per year — almost 15 per cent of the UK's total wood consumption. Eight members of the group — Boots The Chemist. B&Q. Do It All. Great Mills. Homebase. MFI. Texas Homecare and Wickes Building Supplies have formally agreed not to buy products from unknown sources or poorly managed forests after the end of 1995.

But not everyone working In the timber Industry is as enlightened as this group. In many developed countries, there is a growing industry backlash against conservation. In Australia, for example. loggers have clashed violently with environmentalists over attempts to stop logging in remaining-old-growth forests.

Some industrialists complain that conservationists focus too much of their attention on forest related industries.

"Many industrialists object saying that we environmentalists fall to give credit where it is due and that twe keep mqvingi the goabpotfB. observes Jeanrenaud. 'They have a point. The trouble is that we have to keep moving l he goal posts, because new. and Increasingly worrying, problems keep emerging."

Over the past ten years, the global forest situation has actually got worse. In the tropics, the forest area Is declining. In numerous temperate and boreal regions, though, the area covered by trees is expanding. Much of -this tree cover, however. Is provided not by natural forests but by unnatural, single-species plantations.

"The best way to solve these problems is for both industry and environmental groups to change the way they work." concludes Jeanrenaud. "Conservationists must stop simply criticizing loggers for cutting forests the wrong way. Industrialists must stop leaping to defend the way they operate. Instead, the two groups need to forge partnership which promote solutions — such as independent certification of forest products — that offer positive benefits for both business and the environment."'

Sarah Russel Is a Press Ol'/icer with IW International.