Timber With A Green Pedigree

You can find it in a new Gibson guitar, in kiosks at the Nature Company stores and even in the Portland Trailblazers' practice court. It's wood harvested responsibly from an eco-friendly commercial forest, not timber stripped from a virgin rain forest. How do you know? The Forest Stewardship Council says so.

This international group oversees other expert organizations that certify well-managed forests and their wood products. FSC-approved inspectors (in the U.S. they would be from the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood group or Scientific Certification Systems) check to see whether a landowner harvests wood in a way that does not harm animal habitats, streams, indigenous peoples or the local economy. Moreover, logging must be limited to a pace that allows a forest to replenish itself over the years--a practice called sustainable forestry. Since being formed in 1993, the Mexico-based FSC has certified 25 million acres of forest worldwide, among them 4.5 million acres in 39 American forests.

The council's inspectors also sanction wood products made from its approved forests if their manufacturer meets yet another set of criteria. Certified products, including Gibson's Les Paul Exotics line of guitars, are allowed to carry the FSC symbol, which features a tree with a checkmark. "It's a verifiable audit trail," says Jamie Ervin, the executive director of the FSC's U.S. branch. "Instead of just being hit with negative images about rain-forest destruction, consumers can look for a logo that lets them make a positive environmental choice."

Well, good luck finding the logo, for now. The FSC and others in the certification movement acknowledge that the number of good-wood products carrying the seal is quite small--not even 1% of all wooden wares sold in the U.S. "Certification has not hit the mainstream consumer market yet," says Francis Grant-Suttie of the World Wildlife Fund. "But when key retailers stock these products, consumers will become very aware, very quickly."

Other strategies for reducing the amount of logging include making products using recycled wood and wood substitutes. Kafus Environmental Industries of Boston makes panelboard from reclaimed waste wood and newsprint from kenaf, a tall plant loaded with fiber that can be grown on farms.

Will all these initiatives eventually take the pressure off the world's remaining virgin forests? Knock wood.

--By Martha Pickerill