[Content by: FSC International] His Royal Highness (HRH) The Prince of Wales reconfirmed his commitment to the responsible management of the world’s forests and called for those buying forest products – individuals, governments and business – to make informed choices to protect forests across the globe.
Speaking via a pre-recorded video at the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) 20th anniversary dinner in Seville, Spain, Prince Charles pointed to research by the scientist Matt Hansen, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Google that found the global rate of net forest loss remained high, at about 125,000 km2 per year. This is equivalent to around half the size of the United Kingdom.
“Today – and despite much progress in a number of countries – we continue to lose an equivalent of fifty football fields of forest every minute. Of all the environmental challenges that confront us, I have to say that, for more years than I care to remember, it is deforestation that I have found to be among the most troubling and, indeed, most intractable, especially given the ongoing pressure on forests in so many tropical forest countries,” the Prince stated.
He referred to this situation as being one that any sane person would not accept. “Forests are not just places of outstanding natural beauty and value, or the source of a light, strong, durable and renewable building material, and of paper and many medicines. Nor are they simply a treasure trove of biodiversity and a home for indigenous peoples. They provide absolutely essential ecosystem services for the whole of humanity. They store carbon, clean our air and water, cycle nutrients, and generate global weather systems.”
The Prince remembered asking, almost a quarter of a century ago, how consumers could know enough about the way timber products had been produced to make informed choices. It was clear to many that something had to be done to stem the tide of destruction, but forestry standards were then virtually non-existent.
“Purchasers simply had no means of knowing whether they were contributing to responsible management, or colluding in environmental damage. Now, after twenty years of remarkable progress, FSC provides a powerful source of assurance for anyone buying forest products, whether they are individuals, government departments or private sector businesses.
“What started out as a good idea, driven by a small but visionary group – and backed by the WWF – has harnessed the power of markets to such an extent that there are now more than 180 million hectares of FSC-certified forest across the world, twenty million of which is in the tropics. That is a remarkable achievement,” said the Prince.
The Prince’s own estate forms one of the 28,000 global FSC-certified forests. His Royal Highness called for more sustainable sources of supply to be developed, and markets empowered to support them, to meet the growing demand for natural resources such as food, paper, timber and fuel.
“Looking at the wider picture, land-use change and forestry, together with agriculture, comprise over 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions – higher than any other sector, even transport. Ecosystem markets could soon be part of the solution to cutting those emissions. We know that keeping carbon in forests is one of the cheapest and most effective options we have for cutting climate-changing emissions, so it seems to me that the role of FSC is only going to become more important as these new mechanisms are introduced,” Prince Charles concluded.
Watch the video here