Kleercut

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Kleercut is the name of an active campaign conducted by Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and others towards the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Kimberly-Clark is the world’s largest manufacturer of tissue products, most notably the Kleenex brand. According to its annual environmental report, the company uses over 3.1 million metric tonnes (3.4 million tons) of virgin fiber from forests and plantations annually. Its products are a source of controversy because many are derived from pulp and paper from old growth forests. The corporation has been alleged to support the clearcutting of such forests in Canada and the United States, including forests that are home to threatened wildlife like the woodland caribou and wolverine. The Kleercut campaign is an international campaign whose main goal is to pressure Kimberly-Clark into ending its practice of using pulp and paper from ancient and old growth forests in its products.

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[edit] Detailed campaign goals

The campaign is asking Kimberly-Clark to:

  • Stop using wood fiber from endangered forests such as the Boreal forest.
  • Stop producing tissue products using only virgin wood fibers and instead increase the use of post-consumer recycled fiber in all of its products.
  • Turn to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) eco-certified forestry operations for what virgin wood fibers it does use.

[edit] Online networking and open-source foundation of the Kleercut campaign

The online Kleercut campaign is centered on open-source software and a philosophy that an effective and engaged grassroots is needed for a successful campaign. The story and the networks behind this campaign are an example of the alignment of the progressive technology and free software community with environmental and grassroots communities. According to Greenpeace the Kleercut campaign is "one of the more successful online forest campaigns in recent Canadian history." Greenpeace claims "1000 new sign-ups each month."

[edit] Kimberly Clarks response

Kimberly-Clark has responded to Greenpeace Kleercut campaign by claiming the 85 percent of the wood harvested in Canada's boreal forest is for lumber rather than pulp and that most of the fiber purchased is from waste from timber harvested for lumber. Also Kimberly Clark claims that the pulp purchased is from operations certified by the Forest Stewardship Initiative (FSI).

[edit] Forest Certification

Greenpeace demands logging companies in Canada to turn to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a forest certification started by Greenpeace and other organizations. Kimberly Clark currently uses Forest Stewardship Initiative (FSI). Greenpeace and other environmental organizations claim the FSI is "Greenwash". Some environmental organizations however do not agree. Metafore has evaluated FSI and found FSI helps promote sustainable forestry. On the other hand not all NGOs support FSC. A few small grass-roots conservation groups have sharp disagreements with FSC. For example the Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance calls FSC "phoney "green label" logging"

[edit] Role of Forest Protection in United States

According to a Sacramento Bee article "State of Denial; Since 1990 62 lumber mills in California have closed. The volume of timber cut from national forests has dropped 80 percent. This is because of protection given to forests in the United States. Because there has been no reduction in demand the shortfall is made up by imports from Canada. Imports that come from the clearcuts that are the subject of the Kleercut campaign. According to the FAO "Between 1990 and 1997, timber harvest from US federal lands declined from about 66 million cubic meters per year to 24 million cubic meters. This has caused a shift in harvest to US private lands and to Canadian forests. Between 1990 and 1997, US softwood lumber imports from Canada rose from 42 to 63 million cubic meters. Much of the increase in lumber imports has come from the native old-growth boreal forests of eastern Canada."

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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