Fears that the added inconveniences of air travel post September 11 might have a serious impact on the American Hardwood Export Council annual European conference proved unfounded. And those that attended the event in Dublin last week witnessed a ground-breaking debate between the world’s leading forestry certification schemes.
The two-day conference drew hardwood traders from Ireland, the UK and across the rest of Europe, plus their suppliers from the US. In his opening address, Peter Kurz, minister-counsellor at the US Embassy in London, acknowledged to the 170-strong audience that it was ‘not a good time for an event linked with a US government department’.
‘But the attendance demonstrates your trade responding to the White House’s appeal for a business as usual approach.’
AHEC European director David Venables thanked the audience for ‘keeping faith’ and maintained that the long-term future for American hardwood timber and veneer in Europe still ‘looks good’.
‘With lumber sales over 800,000m³ and veneer more than US$180m in 2000, the EU remains the sector’s biggest market,’ he said.
The centrepiece of the conference was a seminar on hardwood certification, with keynote speakers Mike Virga of the American Forest and Paper Association‘s Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Hank Cauley of the Forest Stewardship Council, US, and Ben Gunneberg of the Pan European Forest Certification scheme.
Mr Gunneberg was applauded when he condemned attacks on alternative certification schemes by FSC supporters.
‘They don’t help the forestry sector, or timber and the sooner you [the FSC] do something about them the better,’ he said.
Mr Cauley’s statement that the certification schemes were in ‘a competition the FSC wants to win’ was not well received. But he also criticised green attacks on the other schemes and said that the FSC wanted to distance itself from hard-liners and occupy the ‘moderate middle ground’.
