So the more things change here at Dogwood, the more things stay the same. We are continuing our campaign, our mission, our heart’s work, to protect Southern forests by transforming the pulp and paper industry. With your support over the years, we have found new and better ways to achieve our shared objectives.
Early this month, Dogwood Alliance was proud to attend the Environmental Paper Network’s 2014 Fall Steering Committee meeting in Boulder, Colorado. Environmental Paper Network (EPN) began in 2002 as an unlikely alliance of organizations with very diverse approaches to a common problem — addressing the scale of the challenges and opportunities for social justice and conservation presented by the expanding forest, pulp and paper industry. It should come as no surprise that with 15 years of history working to transform the pulp and paper industry in the US South, Dogwood Alliance was one of the founding partners of the EPN.
Why are emissions reduction decisions being made in the real world based on a financial framework at a fraction of the cost of the actual value and real world benefit of carbon? Why are decisions concerning the forests of the South, the lungs of the nation, being made at the fraction of the true cost of carbon?
Held every three years, the General Assembly is an exercise in direct democracy where FSC’s members gather in support of the FSC’s noble idea to bring together social, environmental and economic interests into one system for the responsible management of the world’s forests. The General Assembly played out like a compelling novel; savvy business leaders sitting down with environmental activists, labor unionists from around the globe sharing coffee, leaders of Indigenous peoples from the tropics dialoging with FSC officials.
“As an organization working to conserve forests in the largest paper producing region in the world, the US South, we have been pleased with the leadership Domtar has taken to produce paper that has a lighter touch in the woods,” said Danna Smith, Executive Director at Dogwood Alliance. “Domtar was an early adopter of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, when many people said it couldn’t be done in the US South. They proved their critics wrong with the production of Earth Choice and 5 million tons later are continuing to lead the way.”
