“IKEA’s long term goal is to ensure that all the wood in its
products comes from well-managed forests,” said Susanne Bergstrand,
IKEA’s international environment manager. “The first step is to see
that no solid wood is coming from ancient forests or forests with
high conservation values.”
IKEA is the largest furniture retailer in the world, with an
annual turn-over of $8 billion dollars. The company has contracts
with over 2000 manufacturers in 65 countries that supply its
furniture. In today’s announcement, IKEA said that it had written
to all its furniture suppliers asking them to take steps to make
sure that, by September 2000, the solid wood used to make furniture
for IKEA does not come from ancient forests. The only exception to
this will be for wood from ancient forests coming from Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forestry operations.
Greenpeace forest campaigner, Christoph Thies, speaking at the
press conference, welcomed IKEA’s announcement. “Wood consumers
have a right and a responsibility to know where their wood products
are coming from, and to end their role in ancient forest
destruction. IKEA is joining the movement of responsible corporate
consumers concerned about ancient forests, and Greenpeace looks
forward to working with IKEA around the world to implement the new
policy and to identify good forestry operations that IKEA suppliers
can purchase from.”
This announcement comes on the same day that Greenpeace is
publishing a new report titled: Re-Source: Market Alternatives to
Ancient Forest Destruction. The report describes a range of
alternative fiber products available in the U.S., Europe and Japan,
products that avoid ancient forest destruction.
Just one-fifth of the world’s original forest cover remains in
large tracts of ancient forests. Almost half of these forest areas
are currently under threat. Logging activity to satisfy global
demand for paper and timber is currently the biggest single threat
to these forests. Commitments from corporate consumers such as IKEA
to stop buying ancient forest destruction represent a significant
step toward ending the continued loss of these vulnerable, yet
valuable habitats.
