Are the lumber companies taking sustainable forestry seriously now, or is it still a free-for-all?
David Brower used to say “trying to save a forest by nice logging is like trying to sober up by drinking martinis!” There’s a lot of intention to certified logging and sustainable logging, particularly of tropical rainforests. I say we need to leave all of the world’s primary or old-growth or ancient forests alone. We have taken too much! Much of China was once an old-growth forest: it’s gone! Virtually all of Europe was once an old-growth forest: it’s gone! And the sirens we hear in the background is the sirens of desperation at a world that’s falling apart. You know, in North America, 98.3 per cent of the old growth forests in the 48 states in the US, they’re gone! So not another stick! We need to re-structure the wood-products sector of the global economy. And in terms of providing the lumber and building materials for 6 billion people going to 8 billion going perhaps to 10 billion, in terms of the paper needs that we have, we’re technologically clever. We can do that without destro
