WOOD, PAPER, CHECKMARK: design an awareness campaign for sustainable forestry

A competition to create elements of a consumer call-to-action campaign to buy FSC-certified products as a means of protecting forests around the world.

OVERVIEW

Forests nurture and sustain life on Earth. They give us fiber, food, fuel and fresh water. In fact, about two-thirds of people worldwide depend on forests to supply all or some portion of their fresh water. And more than 1 billion people living in extreme poverty depend on forests for their livelihoods and subsistence. Furthermore, forests harbor more than two-thirds of known terrestrial species. They renew the air we breathe and moderate our global climate by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it over the long term. They also play a major role in recycling atmospheric moisture and stabilizing soils.

We are all consumers of forests. From paper and magazines to building products and furniture, we are surrounded with the fiber of forests from around the world. But few of us know the origin of these forest products, much less if they were responsibly managed and legally harvested before making their way into our homes and offices.

The forest products trade, estimated at $300 billion a year, is a vast global industry. What we purchase in the United States, France or Japan can affect the health – or destruction – of forests in Indonesia, Cameroon or Brazil. Some of this trade is traffic in wood from forests that were poorly managed and illegally logged, with devastating consequences for people, wildlife and natural systems around the world. And deforestation – which claims 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of forest each year – contributes approximately 20 percent of greenhouse gases causing climate change.

A critical tool in the race to save the world’s forests is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. Founded in 1993, FSC is an international NGO certification and labeling system that promotes the responsible management of the world’s working forests. It is supported by social-welfare and workers’ rights groups, timber industry representatives, and the environmental and conservation community. Conservationists promote FSC certification as a means of safeguarding working forests – those that are managed to supply wood – which often surround and buffer national parks and other protected areas.

FSC is the only global certification system in which forest management practices are evaluated by an independent third party according to strong social, environmental and economic standards. Certified wood is tracked from forest to manufacturer to corporate retailer to consumer. The FSC label gives consumers the assurance that the wood and paper products they purchase are sourced responsibly and legally. More than 281 million acres of forest in 79 countries have been certi¬fied to FSC’s standards, and these figures are rising by approximately 12 percent per year.

THE PROBLEM

Consumer awareness of FSC is uneven globally. Consumer awareness translates directly into increased demand for FSC-certified forest products (e.g., building materials, paper, furniture, flooring), which, in turn, drives demand for more forests to meet FSC’s standards. But in the Netherlands, prompted consumer recognition of FSC is 67%, while in the United States – the largest consuming market of wood products in the world – public awareness of and, therefore, demand for FSC is negligible. Moving more forestland into FSC status will require consumers and corporations in the United States and other high-value markets, such as the EU, Australia and Japan, to be aware of and ask for FSC-certified products.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Tuesday January 13, 2009

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