The W.J. Cowee “Save the Forests” Campaign

Our company supports environmentally responsible forestry. Unfortunately, many companies around the world do not share this commitment. Each day, thousands of acres around the globe are being destroyed due to illegal, unsustainable logging practices. Here are the facts and what we can do to help stop this atrocity.

Global Deforestation –A CRISIS in the Making, Right Now!

A logging project in the Siberian forests of eastern Russian leaves no tree standing, causing havoc on the ecosystems and atmosphere. - Photo Emma Wilson

The Facts

• Illegal, unsustainable logging practices throughout the world are contributing to the destruction of the Earth’s atmosphere.
• The loss of forestlands as a natural resource has severe consequences upon humanity, economies and the global ecosystem.
• China, the world’s largest importer of raw timber and largest exporter of wood products, is a leading contributor to this problem because it purchases large amounts of illegally harvested timber to make wood products.
• Many Asian and Pacific nations, including Russia, will lose more than 70% of their forests as a consequence of satisfying China’s demand for timber resources.
• Scientists predict that at current logging rates, the Siberian forests north of the Chinese border will disappear within two decades, while Indonesian forests may be nearly eradicated in a decade.

How W.J. Cowee is Responding
As a US manufacturer of wood products, W.J. Cowee has pledged to be an environmental steward of our timber resources. We are also committed to spreading the word to others about the problem of global deforestation.

We only use native Northeastern hardwoods. We never use imported wood or wood that we don’t know exactly where it came from and how it was harvested. Each of our log suppliers must sign the W. J. Cowee Pledge to Promote Forest Sustainability. The Pledge requires our suppliers to harvest our wood in accordance with sound, legal environmental practices to promote forest sustainability; protect the natural habitat for the wild species that inhabit the forested areas where our wood is harvested; and conduct logging activities in a manner that promotes safety, workers’ health and fair labor practices.

What We Can Do To Help Stop The Problem, NOW!

• Insist that any wood products you purchase come from sources that abide by certifiably sustainable logging practices.
• Be wary of any wood products imported from China; it’s very likely they are manufactured from illegally harvested wood.
• Abide by the provisions of the Lacey Act, as amended. It is now a crime subject to civil and criminal prosecution to import and distribute wooden products from illegally harvested timber.

To read an in-depth, undercover investigative story by the New Yorker Magazine about the illegal logging practices on the Chinese-Russian border and its ecological consequences, click here -http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/06/081006fa_fact_khatchadourian

To read more about the consequences the illegal timber trade has upon the United States, read this excellent report prepared by the EIA entitled “No Questions Asked” by clicking on the brochure cover below.

EIA – report-nqa-forests-oct07.pdf

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is a well spring of information about the travesties of global deforestation and other environmental issues – to learn about the world-wide illegal logging trade and how the US is attempting to stop the practice through the recent amendment to the Lacey Act, click here:
http://www.eia-global.org