Deforestation in southern Europe

Tetra Pak, Ikea and Kingfisher initiative to evaluate the impact of FSC forest certification

Acréscimo welcomes the announcement by Tetra Pak, Ikea and Kingfisher regarding the group initiative to evaluate and clarify the role of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) on forest certification.

For a year, Acréscimo has been requesting to go through technical visits on places where industrial wastes have been disposed on certified forests soils, managed by pulp and paper companies. This has not been authorized yet.

Although being in Portugal for over a decade, the evidence of of the waste disposal motorization in certified forests has not been part of the agenda in the Audits performed under the FSC  schemes.

In addition to the environmental impacts associated with this practice, the consequences of industrial waste application on forest soils can contribute harmful for public health.

Despite of the customers’ benefits of purchasing products from certified forest, the main question is that FSC has not given assurances regarding the monitoring of potential impacts associated with the application of waste on the forests it certifies, especially on forests managed or owned by industrial groups who also produces such waste.

FSC expresses great weakness in its performance in Portugal. This attitude generates strong doubts about its commitment regarding the goals and standards that the system itself has defined. It should be noted that these industry groups represent more than 70% of forests certified by the FSC system in Portugal. Will there be here any “protection” to its customers?

Even being in Portugal for many years, only recently - after the intervention of Acréscimo - FSC Portugal claimed it has initiate the motorization of waste application on certified forests. However, this unique action is clearly insufficient. The issue, in accordance with the FSC International, requires continuous monitoring applications, right from the moment FSC certifies the entities (2007) that practice application of residues on soils under their management.

To be consistent with the objectives and guarantees that it claims to support before the Society, FSC must ensure the existence of instruments for continuous monitoring certified forest areas, subject of to the application of municipal and industrial waste. Its actions must be supported by scientific knowledge produced by independent entities, based on national ecosystems. That does not happen today.

With the announced increase of industrial capacity in paper industry in Portugal, the pressure on FSC is definitely assured.

FSC and PEFC do not guarantee the monitoring of waste disposal in certified forests

For a year, Acréscimo has been requesting to visit places where industrial wastes have been disposed on certified forests soils, managed by pulp and paper companies. This has not been authorized yet.

Acréscimo also developed contacts with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), to determine their position on this matter. PEFC has voiced no clarification. FSC International responded, however the information conveyed seems contrary to the practice evidenced nationally.

Although being in Portugal for over a decade, the evidence of motorization of the waste disposal in certified forests has not been part of the agenda in the Audits performed under the FSC and PEFC schemes.

In addition to the environmental impacts associated with this practice, the consequences of application of industrial waste in forestry can contribute harmful for public health.

The possibility of eliminating waste on soils is framed by Directive 86/278/EEC, Council of June 12 (Sewage Sludge Directive), lately transposed into the Portuguese legal regime through Decree-Law No. 276/2009 of October 2.

By implementing the Sewage Sludge Directive, Portugal has the obligation to present triennial monitoring reports, as described in Article 5 of Directive 91/692/EEC of the Council of 23 December. There’s no knowledge of any reports produced after 2009.

In Portugal, the Ministry of Environment supervises waste management, but several studies seriously question the effectiveness of their performance. These studies reveal the lack of information regarding the destiny of the waste, of about 50% of the waste produced in the country. The Ministry of Agriculture maintains that the amounts of waste applied to soils are guided by the precepts of the official manual, which however does not cover forest species. Regarding the eventual supervision activities undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture in the application of waste on soils, there’s no evidence of the existence of public reports related to the forests surfaces managed by major industrial players, as the Portucel Soporcel and Altri.

In supervision actions, it’s important to consider not only the followed procedures on the application of waste on soils, but mainly the subsequent monitoring of potential impacts on ecosystems and to rural populations.

Despite of the customers’ benefits of purchasing products from certified forest, either the FSC or PEFC have not given assurances regarding the monitoring of potential impacts associated with the application of waste on certified forests, especially on forests managed or owned by industrial groups who also produces such waste. Systematically, they demonstrate to ignore the situation - in the case of PEFC - or express major weakness in their performance - as the case of the FSC. These attitudes generate strong doubts about their commitment regarding the goals and standards their own certification schemes had defined. It should be noted that these industry groups represent more than 60% of forests certified by FSC and PEFC schemes in Portugal.

Despite its presence in Portugal for many years, only this year (2014), and after the intervention of Acréscimo, FSC Portugal claimed to initiate the monitoring of the application of waste on certified forests. However, this unique action is clearly insufficient. The issue, in accordance with the FSC International, requires continuous monitoring applications, right from the moment FSC or PEFC certifies the entities that practice application of residues on soils under their management.

Documentation produced for the European Commission reports several concerns about the application of these wastes on soils related to the level of nitrogen and phosphorus, cadmium and zinc, other inorganic and organic contaminants, gas that affects global warming and odors.

To be consistent with the objectives and guarantees that they claim to support before the Society, either FSC or PEFC must ensure the existence of instruments for continuous monitoring on certified forest areas, subject of to the application of municipal and industrial waste. Their actions must be supported by scientific knowledge produced by independent entities, based on national ecosystems. That does not happen today.

The Portuguese government forecasts for 2020 a production of 750,000 tons of sewage sludge, 78,57% more than in 2010, with the application of 50% on agroforestry soils. Other EU Members are more restrictive regarding the application of these wastes on soils, or not even consider its application, as in Netherlands. In Portugal, the pressure for the application of these wastes on agroforestry soils has been increasing significantly. The estimative of sewage sludge production in 1995 was 145,855 tons, with the application of 60% on agroforestry crops. In 2005 the estimate value pointed to the 401,017 tons of sewage sludge with 56% applied on agroforestry crops. The regions North, Centre, Lisbon and Tejo Valley are particularly prominent in this matter.

With the announced increase of industrial capacity in the pulp and paper industry in Portugal, responsible for more than 60% of the certified forest area in the country, the pressure on FSC and PEFC is definitely assured.

Portugal: best paper, worst forest

Watch the video below.

This looks fantastic, a cause for national pride. But what does this video not show?

• In the last 30 years, the eucalyptus plantations area in Portugal (dominated by the species Eucalyptus globulus) increased 10 times. The country now has the world's fifth largest area of ​​these plantations. However, productivity remains today identical to that recorded in 1928.
• In the last 15 years, the national forest area, in opposite of what happens in the European Union, fell by about 150 000 hectares, corresponding to a net loss rate of -0.3% per year.
• Between 1990 and 2010, the economic weight of the Portuguese forest, valued at the net Added-Value of forestry under the national GVA, lost around 67% -  from 1.2% to 0.4% (in 2012 stands at 0, 5%). The Portuguese forestry sector decreased its weight in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of nearly 40% between 2000 (3.0%) and 2010 (1.8%).
• In social terms, in the last two decades, employment in Portuguese forestry sector showed a sharp decrease between 1995 and 2010, about 160 000 less jobs.
• Regarding the risk, there are particularly prominent statistical records relating to forest fires. Portugal recorded, between 2000 and 2009, about 35% of the burnt area of all five southern Member States of the European Union (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and France). The most affected regions in the country are the North and Center, associated with the production of wood, with particular highlight to areas occupied by the maritime pine and eucalyptus regions, mainly privately owned, with predominantly small farms, fragmentation of rustic ownership, owners disorganization - either on technical and commercial issues – where markets are dominated by win-lose relations protagonized by industrial oligopolies protected by political power.

Burned area/year/10 Km2 (2006-2010) - FAO, Unasylva 242

We are not against eucalyptus plantations, when they respect principles of technical, environmental, social and economic nature. We recognize the technological advances in the manufacture of paper in Portugal. But, we do not agree with the forest policy followed by the country in recent decades, in which the pulp and paper sector protectionism has enjoyed political protection at the expense of forest, rural populations and territory.

The country currently has, as the second largest exporter, an industry group of pulp and paper production. However, in overall, exports of forest-based products are much less than it was in the recent past. Eucalyptus plantations have increased substantially in recent decades, but the country experiences a situation of deforestation and the national forest is a victim of rising risks along these same decade impacts.

Now draw your conclusions.

Forests fires in Portugal

European taxpayers will fund new eucalyptus plantations in Portugal

The Portuguese government proposal. to submit to the European Commission for grant support from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to forests in Portugal, is intended to include public funding for investment in eucalyptus plantations on the pulp and paper industry.

In 2005, Portugal had the fifth largest area of ​​eucalyptus in the world, exceeding Australia - the origin country of this species. Between 2005 and 2010 this area has increased more than 26 thousand hectares.

Over the past 30 years, the area of ​​eucalyptus in Portugal increased tenfold (10x), however, the average yield per hectare registers, nowadays, values ​​already achieved in 1928. The focus of the pulp industry and paper sector has been developed in quantity, the mass area, not in quality, productivity per hectare.

Eucalyptus areas in Portugal are private, with significant impact on of Central and Northern regions, characterized by properties of less than 5 acres and owners have little or no negotiation power.

Besides that, the pulp and paper cluster is characterized by loose-win relationships, acting in imperfect competition, with the unilateral imposition of price forestry.

Organizations of forest owners have been characterized more by a performance of broadcasting public policy and less by defending the interests of their members. The analysis of the net entrepreneurial evolution income in forestry over the last decade is self-explanatory.

On the other hand, the authorities have refrained from making a systematic monitoring of markets, allowing industry free operation.

What are the risks then?

Forest fires in Portugal have assumed contours of national catastrophe. Their progress on the ground derives from the lack of proper forest management practices. This lack stems essentially from weak or no prospects for business in the forest. When revenue is uncertain, practices are reduced to a minimum expense on forested areas, as we'll see. 

Encourage the cultivation of more land without ensuring the viability of forestry business is a gamble of very high economic risk, but also social and environmental danger.

What we know of the past?

Despite of the billions spent in the last 27 years in Portugal, under the CAP in forestry investment, the economic situation of forestry deteriorated significantly, with accessories impacts at environmental and social levels.

Two examples of 27 years of the CAP support to forests in Portugal:

- According to information from the national forest authority, the forest species that most benefited from public support, maritime pine, record this period of time a significant regression in area and volume; and,

- The second species which received more public support, the cork oak, registered practically only a maintenance of the cultivated area, but with loss of quality in the product, cork.

Where was gone the moneys collected from taxes of national and European taxpayers?

The focus of the Portuguese government, for public funding to be provided for 2014/2020, still requires the efforts of taxpayers to benefit the forest industry strategies, out of step with forests. This time, the government wants to extend this effort to benefit the financial affairs of the pulp and paper industry. The future impact of this bet can be invaluable, especially if the expected climate changes on the environmental sphere are not minimized. At the southern European level, these changes may generate more and larger forest fires, and the main cause continues to be neglected: the lack of prospects for sustained, sustainable and socially responsible business in the forests in Portugal.

Are the European taxpayers unintentionally promoting forest fires in Portugal?

Acréscimo is a non-governmental organization created to promote forestry investments in accordance with the concept of sustainable development and social responsibility principles.

As Portuguese Government prepares another Rural Development Program (RDP) for the period 2014-2020, we question the results of those previous 25 years of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Portuguese forests.

What are we missing?

Acréscimo is could not find any evaluation study about the CAP funds application to forests in Portugal. The main question is: in consequence of these funds application on forests, how much of this investment was reverted effectively in adding economic, environment and social values?

On last June, Acréscimo questioned the Ministry of Agriculture in Portugal, regarding on the statistics related to afforestation in the last 25 years. Acréscimo also asked for the public information about forest investments – co-financed by the CAP – detailed by tree species and areas (hectares). Until November, no feed-back was received. Not even a link to access the data requested, that should be public and available information.

What do we suspect?

In the absence of concrete data, we suppose that the results related to the forestry measures using CAP funds in Portugal had no significant positive impacts to the Society, nor economic neither social nor environmental.

Worse, we suspect of the cyclic application of public funds in local cyclically affected by forest fires in the last 25 years.

What do we know?

On despite of the implementation of hundreds of millions of Euros of public support in Portuguese forests, we know that the weight of the gross value added (GVA) to forestry declined over 66% in 2010 compared to 1990, compared to the national GVA. We also know that the weight of the forestry sector (the set of forestry and forest-based industries) in Portuguese GDP fell down 40% between 2000 and 2010.

Forestry GVA / National GVA

Source: INE, CES 2011. Lisbon, 2012.

We also know that the forest species that has enjoyed more support - the maritime pine - experienced the retreat in its area of about 400 hectares in the last 25 years. This occurred in despite of the nearly 700 million of public funds applied. This amount could have boosted about 350 thousand hectares of new afforestation with this species.

Unfortunately, we know that the application of hundreds of millions of Euros of CAP funds will not minimize the cycle of destruction caused by forest fires in Portugal, which currently has similar impact to what it had in the mid 90s.

Forest Fires - Burned Areas 1980/2012

(red line - wooded areas / yellow - uncultivated areas / black - total burned area)

Source: ICNF. Lisbon, 2013)

Questions that may arise:

What is the real destination of hundreds of millions of Euros of public support that should create value in forests, ensuring employment and welfare to Society and protect Nature?

Are the European taxpayers unintentionally promoting forest fires in Portugal?

What measures of forest policy (beyond the RDP 2014/2020) has the Portuguese Government prepared to counter the progressive decline of forestry in Portugal? 90% of the forest areas in Portugal are owned by hundreds of thousands of families and rural communities, the vast majority undercapitalized and more than 60% of cases with properties up to 5 hectares. The forest product markets are characterized by loose-win relationship, where prices are generally imposed by the forest-based industries.

The attention of:

The Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

The Portuguese Parliament

The European Parliament

The Portuguese Government

The European Commission