November 6, 2002

Liviu Amarei Forest Stewardship Council
Avenida Hidalgo 502
Oaxaca, Mexico

Sent by electronic mail

Re: Sierra Club of Canada appeal of SCS (Allagash) certificate

Dear Liviu,

I am writing in order to provide you with a response from the Sierra Club of Canada to the report prepared by the Accreditation Unit of the FSC Secretariat. I apologize for the delay in providing this response, but we have sought to incorporate in our response the considered views of Sierra Club constituents in Canada and the United States with regard to this important matter.

First of all, we’d like to express our appreciation for having had the opportunity to meet with the accreditation unit team in Maine in May 2002. We felt that this was a constructive and informative meeting, during which we were able to present our concerns and discuss them in a frank and open way.

We were surprised and deeply disappointed, therefore, to receive the report of June 26th, 2002, and to discover that our concerns have had very little influence on the actual recommendations with respect to both SCS and JDI.

At our meeting we raised the strong concern that FSC should certify to actual practices rather than rewarding good intentions, but there is little evidence that this has been the case.

We would provide a more specific and detailed response, but based on the report prepared in June we lack confidence that the FSC appeals process will be rigorous enough.

We do not plan at this time to reinstate the appeal, although we most certainly do not believe that it has been resolved to our satisfaction. Instead of pursuing this appeal we will use other means to raise awareness about the grievous shortcomings in JD Irving’s management practices. We will at the same time explore other avenues to ensure that the Forest Stewardship Council exercise the rigour that is necessary if it is to be a truly credible global forest certification system.

Yours sincerely,

Martin von Mirbach

Director of Forest and Biodiversity Campaigns