ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: Consumer Power vs Forest Destruction

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 23 2000 (IPS) - Japanese activists, aware of consumer power in this affluent society, are lobbying the public to avoid buying products made from wood imported from Siberia in order to slow the destruction of forests there.

Speaking after a week-long campaign this month, Eiichiro Noguchi, coordinator of the Siberia Hotspot Project of Friends of the Earth Japan, said: “The best way to stop the increasing imports of timber from Siberia is to ask the public to stop buying products made from that wood.”

“With this target in mind, we have been holding seminars and workshops as well as informing the media about the problem,” Noguchi explained.

Indeed, for many activists Japan has long had a less than savoury record when it comes to importation and consumption of products that harm the environment and biodiversity of developing countries — but are very much in demand here.

Japan, long criticised by environmentalists for being the world’s top importer of tropical wood, now also holds the same position with regard to wood supplies from Russia.

The rise in imports from Russia, mostly the Russia larch wood for plywood construction, has come about in the past several years as a result of environmental campaigns and decreasing wood supplies from South- east Asia.

“Japan is now the largest consumer of wood from Siberian forests, buying 75 percent of all wood supplies from Russian Far East forests,” Josh Newell of Friends of the Earth said to mark the start of the campaign mid- February.

A survey released by Nichigouren, Japan’s plywood companies association, indicates that imports of timber from Russia has climbed from 357 cubic meters in 1993 to 1,128 cubic meters in 1997.

Imports from South-east Asia, while still at the top, have been decreasing steadily from 69 million cubic meters in 1993 to 47 million cubic meters in 1997.

Imports from New Zealand and the United States follow respectively. Japanese forests, which cover 60 percent of Japan’s land area, supply only 45,000 cubic meters, giving rise to the criticism that the country protects its own environment by exploring that of other, usually poorer, countries.

Siberian timber is popular in Japan’s expanding two-by-four housing industry. For one, it is at least 25 percent cheaper than Japanese wood and the uncontrolled supply is encouraging widespread use, says Noguchi.

Newell pointed out that Japan’s large appetite for Siberian timber has become a threat to the forests and the natural habitat of a large species of wildlife native to Siberia.

“Japanese plywood companies calls temperate forests a ‘green source’ because they say these forests help to reduce consumption from tropical forests by being a substitute. The industry has no idea how important temperate forests are for the global environment,” he explained.

The US-based World Resources Institute has called the Siberian forests the world’s largest remaining wilderness. Siberia stretches from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean and contains 20 percent of the world’s forests.

Environmentalists say the large, roadless forests play a critical role in the preservation of biodiveristy, regulation of climate change and maintenance of clean water for the planet. Rare animal species such as the Siberian tiger, gray whale, and the Steller Sea Eagle, are also endangered by the destruction of the forests.

The Siberian tiger, now numbering around 300, has put the Russian Far East on the conservation map. A study of Kamchatka Peninsula, which supports the world’s largest population of brown bears, is also under threat.

Newell also cites a World Bank study that lists Russian forests as being of such richness and size that they store 75 percent of all carbon released into the air.

Environmentalists point out that cutting trees and industrial development lead to the melting of permafrost and subsequent release of methane, a greenhouse gas that causes global warming.

Vladimir Moshkalo, Asian head of the World Conservation Union, says his group has listed ten “hotspots” in the Siberian forests that need to be protected urgently.

“The forests are logged indiscriminately by the Russian mafia and unscrupulous military soldiers are involved as well, which makes it very difficult to stop the illegal practice. We are up against heavy corruption and lax government control,” he told the press.

He says trees along rivers are being harvested, leading to soil erosion which is affecting rivers and salmon spawning affecting the livelihood of indigenous tribes living in the forests.

The Japan Timber Import Association, when contacted, refused to comment on the environmentalists’ report.

The Japan Plywood Association says logs from Russian forests for plywood have doubled since 1997. An official who asked not be named, said logs from Russia are at least 50 percent cheaper than imports from Asia, and their popularity will increase.

Noguchi says their campaign is to ask that Japanese companies make sure that the timber they take from Russia are certified to have been harvested in sustainable forests.

“Europe has started a certification system for its wood imports. We want Japan to also follow suit,” said Noguchi.

Already, he says, forests around the Ikhote-alini mountain range is now being being targetted by logging companies, including a Malaysian joint venture which has just completed a logging deal for the next 45 years.