Film om skogsavverkningen i Enare

FYI
PRESS RELEASE BY THE SAAMI COUNCIL
ITALIAN ETHICAL FUND EXCLUDES STORA ENSO BECAUSE OF INARI WOOD
Stora Enso?s purchase of wood from Saami reindeer grazing areas in the Inari area in Upper Lapland has prompted an Italian Ethical Fund ? Banca Etica ? to exclude Stora Enso from its ethical investment portfolio. Banca Etica made this decision based on the exclusion of Stora Enso from the Ethibel Pioneer Index. Ethibel is an independent consultancy agency for Socially Responsible Investors and the Ethical Pioneer Index only includes the ?absolute pioneers in sustainable business? . Ethibel has confirmed that the exclusion of Stora Enso from the Ethibel Pioneer Index is because of Stora Enso?s involvement in contraversies in Upper Lapland.
- We took the Stora Enso issue to Ethibel in November 2005 and met with Ethibel?s ethical analyists in Brussels. We are very pleased with Ethibel?s decision, says Pauliina Feodoroff, President of the Saami Council.
At the same time we want to commend Stora Enso for deciding to no longer purchase timber from the Inari area.
Still, the decision by Ethibel demonstrates that any company that logs in forests important to reindeer husbandry, or that purchases products deriving from such areas, will be held accountable for breaching ethical and sustainability principles. The same goes for any other kind of resource exploitation in Sápmi. The Saami Council?s ambition is to continue to highlight these kinds of breaches by companies. We will not tolerate the destruction of areas important to the Saami traditional livelihoods. We are determined to bring these kinds of breaches to the attention of national and international tribunals, to the customers of companies, to Socially Responsible Investors, to asset managers and to ethical analyists invovled in the assessment of a company?s ethical and sustainability performance, concludes Feodoroff.
Meanwhile, the Finnish state and its logging enterprise, Metsähallitus, continue to contribute to the destruction of Saami reindeer husbandrly.
For the last year and a half, Metsähallitus has refrained from logging in key winter reindeer herding pastures in Inari, respecting a decision by the UN Human Rights Committee in November 2005, calling on Finland to refrain from logging in the Nellim area in Inari. Nevertheless, Metsähallitus resumed logging in the Inari area again on the 14th of May, 2007 in the forests of Kessi wilderness in Hannunkotavaara, which is in the Paatsjoki reindeer herding area.
In doing so, Metsähallitus has completely ignored the objections of the local Saami reindeer herders.
The Saami Council is extremely disappointed that the logging in the Inari area has resumed. The Saami Council finds it suprising that Finland, through Metsähallitus, has resumed the loggings at the same time as the market has labelled the loggings as unethical.
- Metsähallitus is clearly aware that purchasing products from the Inari area is deemed unethical by the outside world. This is evidenced by the fact that despite several inquires, Metsähallitus refuses to reveal the buyer of the wood, says Feodoroff.
The Saami Council would like to encourage the new Minister for Agriculture and Forestry
- Sirkka-Liisa Anttila- to solve this conflict situation in a constructive way. Metsähallitus representatives have themselves admitted several times that they cannot solve the situation with the reindeer herders because Metsähallitus does not have the mandate to lower logging quotas. This mandate is in the hands of the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry. It is therefore the responsibility of the new Finnish Government to solve this issue.
For more information:
Pauliina Feodoroff, President, +358 40500 41 45
Mattias Åhrén, Head of the Human Rights Unit, +47 47 37 91 61
www.ethibel.org/pdf/Ethibel%20...02005%20ENG.pdf