If a tree falls in the forest, will Wal-Mart hear the sound?

[Green Hope]

Apparently not, according to an environmental investigative report
released this week on Wal-Mart's unsustainable timber procurement
practices. The new study says Wal-Mart's "good wood" procurement
policy only looks good on paper.

Last month, Wal-Mart released a 59-page "Sustainability" progress
report, in which the company said "we want to provide our customers
with the assurance that not only are they getting value and quality,
but they are getting a product that was produced in a socially
responsible manner." But the retailer's wood procurement policies are
basically all bark, and no bite.

Wal-Mart sells wood products ranging from furniture, to picture
frames, candle holders, tooth picks and popsicle sticks. The typical
Wal-Mart supercenter can carry more than 900 different wood products.
Wal-Mart tells the public that "an area of forest the size of a
football field is cleared every second. That's 86,400 football fields
a day. In tropical forests, it's estimated that 50,000 species become
extinct each year because of deforestation. " The retailer has a
"Forest and Paper Network" that seeks to get its suppliers to convert
to certified wood, and to give preference to suppliers who can verify
the use of sustainably harvested wood fiber. "When we discover
sustainable factory issues, we are committed to seeking alternatives,
"
the company says, "or even removing products from shelves."

Based on this pledge, the Simplicity corporation should expect a call
any day now from Wal-Mart, pulling Simplicity's wooden cribs from its
shelves. An undercover study released this week by the Environmental
Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-profit research agency based in
Washington, D.C., says that despite the company's rhetoric about
sustainable wood products, "Wal-Mart is turning a blind eye to illegal
timber sources in its supply chain which threaten some of the world's
last great natural forests."

According to EIA, Wal-Mart does not ask its suppliers where their wood
comes from, and the retailer's 'don't ask' policy "is having
particularly dangerous consequences for the high conservation value
forest of the Russian Far East and the endangered species dependent on
them, including the world's largest cat, the Siberian tiger.

Roughly 84 percent of Wal-Mart's wood products, like cribs and toilet
seats, are sourced from China, and much of China's lumber is imported
from Russia, where as much as 50 percent of the logging is illegal.
EIA undercover investigators met with 8 Chinese manufacturers that
supply Wal-Mart with wood. EIA asserts that Wal-Mart is focused only
on price, and "has not concerned itself with the origin of the timber
used for its products." Wal-Mart's supply chain "will contribute to
the depletion of Russia's 'protected' forests unless concerted changes
are made," the EIA warns.

One supplier EIA examined makes over 200,000 baby cribs for Wal-Mart
every year from Russian poplar and birch. EIA employees, posing as
wood buyers, learned that Wal-Mart suppliers admitted to paying
protection money to the Russian mafia, and to illegal logging. Almost
comical is the fact that logs coming into China from Russia have to be
offloaded from the railcars, and reloaded onto Chinese railcars,
because the Russian train tracks are a different size than the
Chinese. When Wal-Mart customers buy these wood products, they are
supporting "criminal timber syndicates," the environmental group says.

Wal-Mart has pledged to "develop transparency to the wood fiber
source," but EIA replies that the retailer has shown a "lack of
concern" about the sustainability of its wood sourcing. Illegally
harvested wood is cheaper because it bypasses environmental
regulations, permits, labor laws, taxes and tariffs. Illegal lumber
also has a negative impact on the American economy. In 2004, illegal
timber cost American suppliers $460 million in lost exports to foreign
markets, and as much as $700 million in depressed U.S. prices.

The EIA claims that Wal-Mart's drive to squeeze the lowest price from
its suppliers encourages illegal logging. "While the company has laid
out strong talking points," EIA notes, "it has thus far avoided taking
any firm action to eliminate even illegally logged timber from its
supply chain, much less to source from sustainably harvested forests."
The group says that without concrete goals and more transparency, all
Wal-Mart's rhetoric about 'good wood' "cannot yet be taken seriously."
EIA documents several case studies of Wal-Mart's "total inattention to
the legality of their raw materials."

The EIA report calls on Wal-Mart "to commit to eliminating illegally
sourced wood from its supply chain, and to implement a rigorous
purchasing policy for wood products that includes auditing and
tracking mechanisms." EIA concludes that "the drive for 'everyday low
prices' to the exclusion of other questions has a serious cost....The
type of logging pervasive in the Russian Far East damages the
environment, robs the government of revenue, and promotes corruption.
There is nothing sustainable about this model."

Wal-Mart admits "it's difficult to know if the products we source are
coming from certified suppliers and are being made using legally
sustainable practices." But the EIA says it's not enough for Wal-Mart
simply to acknowledge the problem. "It is now time for Wal-Mart to
commit to eliminating illegal wood from its shelves, and communicate
this policy to its suppliers of furniture, frames, toys, paper and
packaging and other wood products," the EIA insists. "Wal-Mart
shoppers do not want to be an inadvertent party to forest crimes."

Alexander von Bismarck, the Executive Director of EIA, says, "To have
Wal-Mart ignore measures that to the rest of the world seem common
sense -- such as asking where your suppliers' wood is from -- has an
enormous impact. It undermines the current global efforts to clean up
the timber industry. When Wal-Mart fails to implement an entire
category of environmental responsibility, it creates demand designed
to take advantage of that. This is currently feeding the illegal
logging problem." The EIA believes that Wal-Mart has within its power
the ability to "limit the destruction of some of our planet's final
frontier forests and the wildlife and people who depend upon them."

Today, there are more than 6,800 Wal-Mart stores around the globe (the
company recently opened its 3,000th international store), but only 400
remaining Siberian tigers. That's not very sustainable odds.

Al Norman is the author of The Case Against Wal-Mart. Forbes magazine
has called him "Wal-Mart's number one enemy."
(c) 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet .org/story/ 71103/

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