Dogwood Alliance

Dogwood Alliance brings together the voices of thousands of individuals, local and regional grassroots partners, and national and international organizations. Together we create powerful leverage on companies whose practices destroy millions of acres of Southern forests every year. We bring skilled negotiators into corporate boardrooms to pursue win-win solutions that ensure the future of natural and native Southern forests. We also work to create financial incentives for positive change by creating market demand for environmentally sound paper products.

The Southern US is currently the largest wood producing region in the world, accounting for approximately 60% of the wood and paper products produced in the US and 15% of the paper products produced worldwide. Large producers of paper and wood products hold broad economic, social and political influence over the management of the South’s forests (as well as the world’s). These large industrial paper companies are engaged in unsustainable forestry practices such as large-scale clearcutting, the conversion of natural forests to sterile tree plantations and the heavy use of chemical fertilizers and herbicides. These practices not only destroy the region’s rich biological heritage but also degrade the socioeconomic well-being of rural communities.

Large corporate customers (such as Staples and Office Depot) can influence directly the paper producers whose forestry practices wreak such havoc on the forest of the South. By organizing high profile campaigns focused on these large corporate customers Dogwood Alliance educates the public about the impact of industrial paper production on our forests and increases demand in the marketplace for sustainably produced paper products.

Dogwood Alliance’s long term goals are to protect and restore the South’s endangered forests, end unsustainable forestry practices, and increase the industry’s use of post-consumer recycled and other environmentally preferable sources of fiber in the production of paper. We envision a thriving and economically viable paper industry that supports rather than obstructs the establishment of connected landscapes of protected intact, natural forests across the South, which are large enough to support the unique biological diversity of the region. We promote forestry practices that meet high standards of environmental responsibility, such as those exemplified in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification standards.

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