We are in hanover at the techs trade fair which features state of the york flooring concepts the exhibitors at the 1000000000 offer top quality products and claim that they need strict environmental standards. One stand belongs to the bows of each company the wood for bows of each has products comes from the primeval forests of the Amazon Region. The company assures consumers who are concerned about the environment that they can buy its products with confidence. If. Those of it has earned a seal of approval from the Forest Stewardship Council or f a c a Nonprofit Organization that promotes responsible management of the worlds forests. But can log. In rain forests ever really be environmentally sustainable. Trunk mel is a German Government expert on the sourcing and purchasing of tropical timber. Mimesis the most inflated eyes of all when german consumers buy tropical Wood Products that are certified by the f a c. They are making a contribution to the preservation of the rain forests and by supporting sound timber management policies mr sufficient to set this up for us yes. But can buying products that have the f. S. E. Seal it really stop the excessive exploitation of primeval forest. The bows of each Company Harvest wood in the forests of peru to make flooring products. This is the order wrong go forest a pristine paradise in the amazon basin. We want to find out where bows of itch and f. O. C. Certified Company Harvest timber for its wood floors. I said and this local manager says the f. S. E. Has imposed strict guidelines on harvesting. In an area the size of a football field only one tree may be removed in 20 years. This process is called selective cutting. This is the tree theyre going to cut down today. There are 3 out of that tree over there back there the one in the middle the white one. Just about. 20 meters high. And the big. Is boulder looming its about 60 years old and has been producing seeds for 50 years and for truckers particularly straight so we get a lot of what they are. Selective cutting is considered a sustainable procedure the f. S. E. Has given its seal of approval to the bows of each company for several years now. Thanks. Those of each believes its taking a responsible approach and the German Government claims that the f. S. E. Is helping to preserve the rain forest fire. But is that really true to find out more we travel to vancouver canada for an f s c conference. The organization is motto is forests for all forever. Will be a 1st sea has invited 1st nations peoples who live in the rain forests of southwestern British Columbia to perform as conserving forests is also about the estimated 100000000 people worldwide who call these areas home. Thank you. For all sorts of conflicts Kim Carstensen is director general of the f. S. E. And im so thrilled to be here with you. Its a conferences like this one that the future of the worlds forests is largely determined the f. S. E. Has members in 85 country. Those who live in the forests members of the w w f and greenpeace and industry representatives all share responsibility for preserving our forests but while some want to protect nature others here want to cut down trees and f. N. C. Promotional video there is victory. In the forest where the tree grows. And the warning who cares for land. There is the man who listens to the point to make sure and it still sounds when. We ask him carstensen what his organization stands for. F. S. A. Is a responsible Forest Management that means that this is a Forest Management that ensures that the forces that now but it would also be the next year and the year after and for the next generation so if a city is very much about maintaining for this carbon maintaining force quality and to make sure that the forests that also for the next generations. To ensure this Forest Management policies are regularly reviewed f. S. E. Conferences 3 groups are allowed to vote. Forest dwellers environmentalists and the Timber Industry green light as usual in politics much of the policy work is done out in the lobby. Indigenous forest inhabitants fight to preserve their habitat environmentalists aim to save primeval forest and industry wants to cut down as many trees as it can while keeping the f. S. E. Seal of approval. Image matters to Multinational Companies and f s c approval helps them look good. When it comes to forest certification. Fs see is the most rigorous and accepted system on the market right now. So. In theory also 3 groups have equal Voting Rights but Greenpeace International a Founding Member of the f. S. E. Claims that environmentalists are being pushed around by the Timber Industry. And as well see later during this film shoot greenpeace took drastic action. At a conference in vancouver the f. S. E. Claimed that under its leadership the worlds forests are in good hands which is the German Government say about that. You can consumers alone should not have to bear all the responsibility for preserving the forests its good for us we have to make sure that the companies that make wood and wood base products dont source wood from primeval forest in a non Sustainable Way that could destroy these and it would have been used 900 to go to school in the past which often. Weve come to london to meet one of the sharpest critics of the f. S. E. Simon council was a cofounder of the organization but soon quit over policy disputes he believes that the f. S. E. Gives the Timber Companies too much power the Timber Industry itself was brought in as one of the Key Stakeholders of this body and part of the Decision Making process which we felt was strongly felt was flawed because the whole system was to be there to inspect and in a sense regulate the tender industry so it shouldnt really have been involved. Council says the Timber Industry influence prevents the f. S. E. From making truly independent analyses. We want to find out whether thats true. We return to timber land license or concessions to the bows of each company in peru. How do they make sure that f. N. C. Guidelines are followed. It is therefore you would offer a proof of origin. We use these markings to keep track of this one from block 4. By line 33. Number 20. Hes markings are on every tree that ends up in the sawmill. Wood from f. S. E. Approved selective cutting is marked in red the f. S. E. Calls this controlled wood. Lumber from other suppliers that dont have the f. A c. Seal is marked in blue. In theory the red and blue stacks should stay separated as they are here but sometimes they get mixed together by mistake. Control board is one of the big controversies inside office and its always been a big controversy the good news i think is that we have to strengthen the control board standard and i think everybody agrees now that there is a level of comfort. But what exactly does level of control mean. We traveled to the peruvian capital lima to meet an expert on the countrys Timber Industry. Who works for the Environmental Investigation Agency or an Advocacy Group heat shes just finished a report that indicates that many Timber Companies falsified documents on the origins of trees as shown by government investigations well there in this report and also disappeared or at least before the show the largest numbers of. Thats illegal to have the last visit for years right so thats thats not a surprise but the growth here is that the consistently keep showing large numbers of illegal. And then from day 1490 papers of the use that where some both here at least 62 are you know documented by official i mean maybe government when it might people from me i think the problem and thats what we do. Because we think that we want to think that were doing something and so i actually feel very frustrated but if you know weve been able to believe or to their offer its not in my country. The wood from the peruvian forests is transported to the river ports of call kulpa. The tree trunks are tied together there are hundreds probably thousands of logs here waiting to be shipped to lima for processing. A local boat captain has some disturbing news. I think. All these logs have been cut down illegally. Everyone around here knows that. But is known as the hub of the illegal timber trade in peru is from here that you legally sourced logs get shipped to Timber Companies. And the e. I. A. Says many will go to pose of it. Local insiders tell us where in the forest illegal logging is currently taking place. We plan to fly over those areas to capture aerial footage. We head toward the 1st location. After about an hour we see a recently logged area its been clear cut. A blue tent stands in the corner of the bald patch in the middle of the jungle. A little while later we spot something that looks like a transport dock. Tree trunks line the waters edge they were probably brought here from the forest. It doesnt seem as if the f. E. C. Has managed to stop illegal logging here in peru. Regarding both of it which we are aware of the i. A. E. A. Reports we are aware that owners for both the us will throw 2 shots you know into some of these cases to our knowledge none of that material was officially certified reference to our knowledge there maybe some issues with it but its not officially certified therefore were still interested in the company because if the company is involved in the kind of she had one way or the other then thats of course an issue for us. Back in lima weve come to bos of bitches love processing complex this is where the wood is prepared for export. Company c. E. O. Drug oboes a bitch shows us prime lumber thats 100 percent f. A c. Certified. Although he also says logs do come in from none f. S. E. Suppliers. So that means you never had problems with illegal. Slopes doesnt mean youre out of the problems here we see the problems getting worse we just try to be ahead of what it means. You know what i think you know bunch of older version. Does. Whatever it costs you house to be if sure fire. Comes in Software Security you got to be able to improve if you can separate the one with a cd from the c. E. O. Of the. Charity anywhere she bought you. So the f. A c. Checks on the origin. Of the word but seems to ignore the fact that both of each has traded in timber that may have forged origin documents. So how credible is the f s c seal of approval we asked Simon Council in london so one would think if youre buying a product with an f. S. A. Label that would be a quite simple message that the the wood inside this product is all from an acceptable source that has been actually inspected by a 1st the auditors and guarantee to be from an acceptable source f. S. E. 100 percent in which the label product contains only f. S. E. Certified timber is actually just a very small part of the picture and the others are from what i call euphemistically controlled wood and controlled wood is that which hasnt actually been controlled so instead of audit is on behalf of f. S. A. Going into the forest to inspect the logging operations its basically done from a desk somewhere else in born or in london ok so we have some examples of f. S. E. Certified products here lets have a look at these labels. This paper f s c paper from responsible sources but importantly you see this word mix on here this particular product itself may have no f s e certified material in it so in that sense this label is misleading to the consumer in letting us believe that it is from responsible sources it may not be at all. Same here this product f. S. E. Mix toilet paper. Interesting here a box of matches f. S. E. Mix again some of the are some of these f. S. E. Certified from acceptable sources and some of them now. Impossible to know from the office label. So what does sees director general have to say about the Organization Certification system. Theres no other system that works better than the system of certification theres no other system that is able to get together state kodos environmental organizations social groups trade unions and the companies who are managing the forest to agree what do we mean by responsible Forest Management what are the standards that we want to set for how we define this no other system does that we in addition i have Quality Control which we have ordered set happen if the company is the treasurer. And if the Certification Team is meeting at this hotel in vaughan part of their work today will involve checking to see whether Timber Companies active in the worlds great forests are complaining with the organisations guidelines. We want to find out how the certification process works and file requests to accompany 10 different verifications but the f. S. E. Turns down our requests so we continue with our research. In the congo basin forest european Timber Companies have permits that allow them to cut down trees in given areas with f s c certification. In the capital brazzaville were meeting a man whos been approving those permits for years. Weve agreed to protect his identity. And were not going to specifically name the companies that hes going to talk about. Me i want to withdraw the certificate from a Certain Company but when i met with the boss of that company he got so angry i left the hotel immediately. That night i feared for my life. When i told my boss about the meeting he also got angry and said i was no longer to inspect their forest concessions the Timber Companies pay money to keep their certification which records are independent in theory but not really. Because in practice we go to a site do a check and afterward nothing changes the companies go back to cutting down many more trees than theyre allowed to. In such a situation you see what its like to see x. Its really just. I think weve seen a situation where its absolutely possible to take action related to the certified operations in the competition one example would be that we disassociate it from interim across 4 years ago and then now back in again because they improve their performance and all of that and this is sort of in the past but we could disassociate and it didnt create problems of that nature i dont. Weve come to the northern jungles of the republic of congo to meet some of the local residents. They belong to a group of seminomadic hunter gatherers called the bug. In this area or sell in some of her friends girl manioc and other crops from which they are in a living. The congo based company a subsidiary of the Swiss Company interpol co has purchased a permit to cut down trees here. The bulk of people say eco is making their lives difficult because Companies Security guards have imposed strict controls on the amount of crops they can grow within each of those concessions. The evil forest concession covers an area of about 11000 square kilometers massive logs get transported out by trucks the company says it takes a selective approach to cutting down the trees. Says this selective cutting complies with f. A c. Guidelines. And the f s c says the logging roads dont harm the local environment. Matthew hansen is a geographer at the university of maryland in the us he uses nasa satellite maps to keep track of how logging affects various regions around the world. Rolls room into. The republic of congo and all of a sudden you do see the logging road so youve seen these before. And so we can zoom into a sort of f. S. E. Certified concession as evil concession the logging roads are beautifully maintained. Gorgeous you can see the the extractions of the trees themselves off the side of the logging road so this is very. Very clear that were getting actually the logging signal in parts of these concessions not everywhere the different colors represent the different years of the cut so this was early in the 2000 this was a couple years ago this was 2016 it is amazing because youre bringing this human footprint and when were there we see the forest elephants you see the chimpanzees in the gorillas its like youve opened up this. Primeval forest and all of a sudden you can drive you know 100 kilometers an hour straight down here to where nobody took you a few weeks to walk i think that theres a cascade of effects here that are changing what was a a natural forest eco system with with low population levels of subsistence farmers and fisher people. And so now you have something pretty irreversible. Evocate people tell us theyre not even allowed to hunt anymore because the company has to protect the animals so it wont lose its f. S. E. Label. Denies these claims. That the vodka used to kill monkeys in gazelles for food but now they say they often dont have enough to eat. Today theyre again preparing a meal from crushed because of a leaves. What. The work that this woman is upset about the situation she says people cant hunt and there are no jobs. There arent any schools for the children and their prospects for the future are blue. She says the Timber Companies should leave the area. The bulk of people see for wont let them earn a living we asked the company about this and it denied the accusations. The f. S. E. Continues to defend the logging practices of the 2 largest Timber Companies now operating in congo. The interpol co subsidiary and c. R. B. I have been through both she had been through until ive seen the way that intuitions people are given separa