The same irresponsible clear cutting and flawed stewardship that closed local mills and has left Coos County Oregon with a 14% unemployment and declining property values is occurring in the once pristine and diverse forests of Latvia. After the airing of the film below, a prime purchaser of Latvian lumber issued a statement saying the company was “…committed to a policy of only purchasing timber products from proven well-managed sources”.
The Baltic nation of Latvia is blessed with some of the most beautiful forests in the world, millions of square kilometres of pristine woodland that support a complex biodiversity of rare species of animals and plants.
But with the Latvian economy in difficulties and the need for money pressing, those trees are being cut down at an alarming rate. Overseas demand for the timber is high, particularly in the UK, which takes almost two-thirds of Latvia’s exports.
Many of the products of the trade from furniture to wood pulp and paper are sold in the UK under a labelling scheme run by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international NGO that certifies timber is being sustainably produced. Is that really true?
Filmmaker Glenn Ellis has been to investigate.
