Forest certification disputed in Ontario

Page 11

Dave Mannix, chairman of the National Aboriginal Forestry Association (NAFA) believes the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) has a lot of work to do before it can say it promotes "environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and ecologically viable management of the world's forests," as its mission statement claims.

The non-profit FSC certification process is supposed to tell consumers that FSC-labelled forests or wood products come from environmentally and socially responsible producers, retailers and distributors. A number of Native organizations have endorsed it.

The problem, as Mannix sees it, is that FSC, headquartered in Oaxaca, Mexico, is not following the ideals contained its own principles and criteria.

Principle 3 is intended to protect Indigenous peoples' rights and tenure in the land, ensuring they are not displaced nor their culture eroded as a result of deforestation. It is supposed to ensure Aboriginal organizations are consulted and involved in sustainable forest management.

Governments and companies that don't respect Principle 3 don't to get the FSC stamp of approval.

Therefore Ontario, which has disregarded treaty rights and has failed to meaningfully consult with Native people on resource issues, said Mannix, should not soon get FSC certification of Crown land.

On May 11 Mannix said, "FSC Canada are going to do a gap analysis between the MNR's [Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources] forest policy and the criteria and principles of FSC. We're not happy with that. What we've requested is that we're part of that analysis, that it's paid for by them, not by us.

"The biggest problem is that even though there's a written Aboriginal portion of that policy within the MNR in Ontario, none of it's lived up to."

Mannix' organization, along with some of the Canadian FSC working group, were angry and surprised March 23 when Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources John Snobelen and FSC's new executive director Maharaj Muthoo jointly issued a statement from Oaxaca that indicated Ontario's Crown land would all be FSC-certified.

"This is an outstanding achievement for the Government of Ontario and builds on the strength of Ontario's Living Legacy in conjunction with the strengths of the FSC standards," said Snobelen.

"FSC will tell the world that the Ontario government has worked with all the stakeholders to ensure that our standards are met. This will serve the forestry companies very well in Ontario by meeting world standards through our certification process," said Muthoo.

The resulting furore among Aboriginal people and environmentalists resulted in FSC issuing a "clarification" April 6.

Mannix stated why he thought the initial FSC announcement came out.

"There is such a high pressure right now between the different certification processes. None of them are recognized by any of our provincial or our national governments. I think it was a bit of a desire by the executive director here in Canada and Oaxaca, who had just toured and met with us (a month ago), to land the big one. . . . So I think it's sort of this race to be the first."

He added, "It was in bad judgement with some of the key people and they soon recognized that after."

David C. Nahwegahbow, a Native rights lawyer based in Ottawa, wasted no time after the original announcement saying it had the appearance of "a total sellout" and Ontario's Living Legacy was "a slap in the face for First Nations peoples."

Not only that, but he, as the only FSC board member from Canada, had not been informed there would be any such announcement.

"It is as if this announcement was deliberately made in a fashion to keep me in the dark."

Other FSC working group participants posted their own views on the internet.

Peggy Smith, a Metis on the faculty of Forestry and Forest Environment at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, told her peers "my immediate reaction is to submit my resignation." On May 7, Smith told Windspeaker she had changed her mind,although she remains concerned.

Russell Diabo wrote, "There are many conflicts regarding the existing Forest Act and regulations."

Jean Arnold at the Falls Brook Centre in Knowlesville, N.B., agreed. "I have no doubt at all that careful, accountable and correctly carried out certifications will come . . . . I am tired of external forces driving an urgency and whipping up anxieties for their own gains. Surely consultation with the FSC Canada (Working Group) would have been at the least, a courtesy."

Muthoo's attempt at damage control said FSC and MNR would review Ontario's forest audit processes and forest regulations vis-a-vis FSC certification standards, which might lead to a formal agreement, but there was no guarantee that Ontario would gain approval.

But Mannix says NAFA's concerns are the same as when its executive director, Harry M. Bombay, sent off a terse letter March 2 to James Sullivan, the deputy executive director and operations director for the FSC.

Bombay reminded Sullivan that Principle 3 "requires that Indigenous people's rights be recognized as a fundamental element of sustainable forest management," while Ontario's position is that "Aboriginal and treaty rights is a constitutional issue and 'not one that can be resolved within a forest management process.' The non-recognition of . . . rights in forest management and the lack of a policy framework to adequately deal with Aboriginal forest values and benefit-sharing from forest-based development has placed Ontario far behind a number of other jurisdictions."

Mannix is also on the team in British Columbia that has been drafting its own comprehensive standards "so that kind of blew the wind right out of the B.C. initiative (to adopt FSC) too." He said organizations such as NAFA and the AFN have previously endorsed the FSC process, so "it was pretty disheartening when they did this."

Nevertheless, the people Windspeaker talked to believe the FSC process is salvageable and is the best option availble now.

On May 7, Nahwegahbow made a presentation to New York City Council's contracts committee where he as much as said so.

He was there to protest a request made to them by Canadian Deputy Consul General Dwayne Wright that council include a reference to CSA, ISO and SFI standards in a bill before them, ostensibly to avoid favoring one certification form (FSC) over another. Nahwegahbow pointed out these other certification models are industry-driven and their standards are not as rigorous.

"From an Indigenous perspective, . . . CSA is inadequate. . . . CSA makes it very clear that only 'duly established' rights are recognized. Of course, this simply perpetuates the status quo of denial and non-recognition of Indigenous rights and the devastating impacts that come with it."