Africa. We are in hanover at the dome a text trade fair which features state of the york flooring concepts the exhibitors at the perp a 1000000000 offer top quality products and claim that they meet 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. Those of it has earned a seal of approval from the Forest Stewardship Council or if a see a Nonprofit Organization that promotes responsible management of the worlds forests. But can logging in rain. Forests ever really be environmentally sustainable. Trunk mel is a German Government expert on the sourcing and purchasing of tropical timber. Then as if the most inside of 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 a sufficient us i suppose yes. But can buying products that have the f. S. E. Seal that 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 or to wrangle forest a pristine paradise in the amazon basin. We want to find out where bows of itch and f. S. E. Certified Company Harvest timber for its wood floors are ice 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 the tree over there back there the one in the middle the white one. Which is about the. 20 meters high. If you make the ball looming its about 60 years old and has been producing seeds for 50 years if wolf the trunk is particularly straightforward and so we get a lot of what. 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. Thank. Those of each believes its taking a responsible approach and the German Government claims that the f. S. E. Is helping to preserve the rainforest for. But is that really true to find out more we travel to vancouver canada for an f. A c. Conference. The organizations motto is forests for all for ever. 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. From 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 countries. 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. S. E. Promotional video and there is the tree. And the forest where the tree grows. And the warming who cares for land. There is the man who listens to the birds to make sure its employees who sounds when. We ask him carstensen what his organization stands for. F. A c. Is about responsible for us much more 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 se is very much about maintaining force carbon maintaining force quality and to make sure that the forest is 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. For as dwellers environmentalists and the Timber Industry. 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 c. Is the most rigorous and accepted system on the market right now. In theory all 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 the conference in vancouver the f. S. E. Claim that under its leadership the worlds forests are in good hands what is the German Government say about that. 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 forests in a non Sustainable Way that could destroy these. Tickets is good for us to trust and. 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 has 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. S. E. Guidelines are followed. It be said for you would offer proof of origin. We use these markings to keep track of this one from block 4. Line 33. Number 20. These 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. A c. Calls this controlled wood. Lumber from other suppliers that dont have the f. S. E. 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 is one of the big controversies inside if for some 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 control. But what exactly does level of control mean. We travel 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 feet shes just finished a report that indicates that many Timber Companies falsify documents on the origins of trees as shown by government investigations. Well there in this report i dont see these are there or did we lose before the show the largest number so. Thats ok because the law does it for years right so does that small of a surprise but the growth here is that the this isnt the keep showing large numbers of papers. And then from there now 490 papers of the uses that where some both here at least 62 are you know documented by official i mean by the government wanted by people from a kid i think the problem is that her and if you see something thats when we do. Because we think that we want to feel that we do something and so i actually feel very frustrated by what you know being able to believe or to the offer is 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 and 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. It is known as the hub of the illegal timber trade in peru is from here that illegally sourced logs gets shipped to Timber Companies. And the e. I. A. Says many will go to pose of a. 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 on phones for both the us will for a tissue of europe into some of these cases to our knowledge none of that material was officially certified to receive regular to our knowledge then maybe its from issues with it but its not officially certified therefore were still interested in the company because if the company is involved and again that she had one way or the other then thats of course an issue for us. Back in lima weve come to blows of bitches love processing complex this is where the wood is prepared for export. Companys c. E. O. Drug oboes a bitch shows us prime lumber thats 100 percent f. E. C. Certified. Although he also says logs do come in from known f. S. E. Suppliers. So that means to move ahead programs was used. Blocks the president were having problems we see problems getting worse we just try to yeah here and borders. You know bunch of voter introversion. He says almost whatever the cost should be scary fire. So its also a seizure if youve got to be able to prove it you can write north to see. No you see that charity any words bob says. So the f. S. E. 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 a c. Seal of approval we asked Simon Council in london one would think if youre buying a product with an f. S. A. Label that would be a quite simple message to the the would inside this product is all from an acceptable source that has been actually inspected by the audit is and guaranteed 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 audiences on behalf of f. S. E. 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. A c. 75 products here lets have a look at these labels. This paper there 1st see 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 living is believe that it is from responsible sources it may not be at all. So you hear this product f. S. E. Mix toilet paper. Interesting here a box of. Is. The mix again in some of the all some of these officially certified from acceptable sources and some of them not impossible to know from the f. A c. Label yeah ok so what do you have to seize 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 stay kodos and from an organization and 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 a company such as from. And if the Certification Team is meeting at this hotel and on part of their work today will involve checking to see whether Timber Companies active in the worlds great forests are complying with the organizations 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. I want to do 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 that forest concession the Timber Companies pay money to keep their certification we checkers 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 it was slow to see its this really just. I think weve seen a situation where its absolutely possible to take action related to the certified operations in the congo basin one example would be that we disassociate it from interim coach 4 years ago and they are 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 it is making their lives difficult because Company 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. A 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. Ill assume into. The republic of congo and all of a sudden you do see the logging road so weve seen these before. And so we can zoom in to 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 is a couple years ago this was a little 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 a 100 kilometers an hour straight down here to where nobody took you a few weeks to walk i think theres a cascade of effects here that are changing what was a natural forest eco system with with low population levels of subsistence farmers and fisher people. And so now you have something pretty irreversible. Develop the 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 kasatka leaves. What. The words are 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 bleak. She says the Timber Companies should leave the area. Where. The bulk of people say if or 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 if the interpol co subsidiary and c. I. B. I have been through both cia through into oracle ive seen the way that interactions peoples are given separate School Credit because theyre not going to be part of the ordinary schools by the other into the other groups of the population so ive seen all of these things a