government rebels backed by touching. that's all for me and the rest of the team here in berlin up next is a documentary about the efforts to stop the destruction of some of the world's oldest forests and tell me a logical thanks for watching as more news at the top of the hour. on. that. ever takes. a running. back and forth to cut it out. for mines.

we were in hanover at the dome a tax trade fair which features state of the york flooring concepts the exhibitors at the purple 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. thank. 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 world's forests. but can logging in rain forests ever really be environmentally sustainable . frank mole is

a german government expert on the sourcing and purchasing of tropical timber. mimesis most excited eyes 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 rainforests and by supporting sound timber management policies mr the 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 most of which company harvests 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 each and f.o.c. certified company harvest timber for its wood floors are. 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 they're going to cut down today. both the tree over there back there and the one in the middle the white one. which is about. 20 meters high. the big. boulder looming it's about 60 years old and has been producing seeds for 50 years

if the trunk is particularly straight 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 bones of its company for several years now. thanks. those of each believes it's 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 s c conference. the organization whose motto is forests for all forever.

will be if a 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. were at risk from all sorts of conflicts kim carstensen is director general of the f.s.a. . and i'm so thrilled to be here with you. it's a conferences like this one to 3 future of the world's 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 there is the tree. in the forest where the

tree ground. and the morning who cares for your land. there is the man who listens to the burning and to make sure in the last response when. we asked him carstensen what his organization stands for. f. a c. is about responsible forest management that means that this is a forest management that ensures that the forces that now but there would also be the next year and the year after and for the next generation so if a sea is very much about maintaining for this 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 us dwellers environmentalists and the timber industry green. 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 well 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 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 we'll see later during this film shoot greenpeace took drastic action. at the conference in vancouver the f.s.e. claimed that under its leadership the world's forests are in good hands what is the

german government say about that. you can consumers alone should not have to bear all the responsibility for preserving the forests it's good for us we have to make sure that the companies that make wood and wood base products don't source wood from primeval forest in a non sustainable way that could destroy these would have been to go to school and post which often. we've come to london to meet one of the sharpest critics of the f.s.e. simon council was a co-founder 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 nonsense regulate the tender industry so shouldn't 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 that's 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. if this is all you would offer proof of origin. we use these markings to keep track of this one from block 4. by line 33. number 20. he's 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 don't 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 if assuming it's 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 country's timber industry. who works for the environmental investigation agency or an advocacy group she's just finished a report that indicates that many timber companies falsified documents on the origins of trees as shown by government investigations well they are in this report and also to be so there or that we've been used before the show the largest number

so. that's the good of the lot is it right so that's that's not a surprise but 7 here is that they consistently keep showing large numbers that any update is. and then from there now 490 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 a kid i think the problem and the south and that's what we do. because we think we want to think that we're doing something and so i actually feel very frustrated i want it to see you know being able to deliver to the offer not only country. the wood from the peruvian forests is transported to the river port of. 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 is that. 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 it's 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 it's 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. tree trunks line the water's edge they were probably brought here from the forest. it doesn't 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. reports we are aware that owners for both the us will throw to shove look into some of these cases to our knowledge none of that material were sufficient surety for her if she were to our knowledge there may be a certain issues with it but it's not officially sure different therefore we're still interested in the company because if the company is involved in again if she had one way or the other then that's of course an issue for us. back in email we've

come to bo's of bitches love processing complex this is where the wood is prepared for export. company's c.e.o. drug oboes of each shows us prime number that's 100 percent f.e.c. certified. although he also says logs do come in from known f.s.e. suppliers. so that means you never had problems with your. looks with your problems we see a problem where we just write yeah boy meets. boy how do you know. wherever it has to be certified. so also it says you have to be able to prove it right then i. see you know that charity work for. you. 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 s c seal of approval we asked simon council in london so one would think if you're buying a product with an f.s.a. label that would be a quite simple message to the the wood inside this product. from an acceptable source that has been actually inspected by the audit is and guaranteed to be from an acceptable source if i see 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 you for mystically controlled wood and controlled wood is that which hasn't actually been controlled so instead of. is on behalf of

f.s.a. going into the forest to inspect the logging operations it's basically done from a desk somewhere else in born or in london ok so we have some examples of f.s.e. certified products let's have a look at these labels. this paper. they 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 may hear this product f.s.e. mix toilet paper. interesting here a box of matches fs the mix again some of the are some of these

f.n.c. certified from acceptable sources and some of them not impossible to know from the fs the label. so what does the f.a. sees director general have to say about the organization certification system. there's no other system that works better than the system of certification there's no other system that is able to get together stakeholders 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 have quality control as we have ordered set happen of the companies such as for. and if they see certification team is meeting at this hotel in von. part of their work today will involve checking to see whether timber companies active in the world's great forests are complying with the organisation's 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 allows them to cut down trees in given areas with f. a c. certification. in the capital brazzaville we're meeting a man who's been approving those permits for years. we've agreed to protect his identity. and we're not going to specifically name the companies that he's 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 that for his concession the temper 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 they're allowed to do. in such a situation you see. the soup exists really just. i think we've seen a situation where it's absolutely possible to take action related to the certified operations in the congo basin one example would be that we disassociate it from interim across 4 years ago and they are now back in again because they improved their performance and all of that and this is talk of in the past but we could disassociate and it didn't create problems of that nature i don't. we've come to the northern jungles of the republic of congo to meet some of the local residents. they belong to a group of semi-nomadic hunter gatherers called the bug. in this area or cell and

some of her friends grow manioc another crops from which they are in a living the congo based company a subsidiary of the swiss company into whole co has purchased a permit to cut down trees here. the backup people say it 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. the post says this selective cutting complies with f. a c. guidelines. and the f. a c. says the logging roads don't 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. well assuming into. the republic of congo and all of a sudden you do see the logging road so we've 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 we're 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 you're bringing this human footprint and when

we're there we see the forest elephants you see the chimpanzees in the gorillas it's like you've 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 that there's 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. evocate people tell us they're not even allowed to hunt anymore because the company has to protect the animals so it won't lose its f.s.e. label. denies these claims. that the bad guy used to kill monkeys in gazelles for food but now they say they often don't have enough to eat. today there

again preparing a meal from crushed because the leaves. what is. the word this woman is upset about the situation she says people can't hunt and there are no jobs. there aren't any schools for the children and their prospects for the future are blue. she says the timber companies should leave the area. where. the bulk of people say if or won't 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 she had to enter or i've seen the boy interactions peoples are given separate school training because they know not to be part of the ordinary schools by the other into the other groups

of the population so i've seen all of these things and i certainly know that indigenous peoples are being respected and that they are given access to modern facilities that they never ever have before. this is part of the land covered by c.i. b.'s permit near pokhara in northern congo. there do seem to be modern facilities here but these are mainly benefiting c.r.b. employees and less so the bulk of people who live in the huge forest concession when this book a woman carries her child as she walks through the streets asking for money as others in her situation she seems in the period the bucha have lived in harmony with nature for several 1000 years and now their lives have been disrupted by timber companies that have been approved by the f.s.e. and the forests to see what they might become we travel to brazil where large tracts of ancient forest have been replaced by eucalyptus plantations. these students are studying whether such monocultures meet the criteria for sustainable

forest management. there professor claimants' lesh of ski teaches political ecology at the university of minister ice. this plantation was one of the 1st monocultures in brazil to receive the f.s.e. seal of approval. he says that eucalyptus crops are popular because they're inexpensive to maintain and can be harvested in just 10 years he says the. but the monoculture crops also dry out the soil and don't provide a habitat for wildlife. so how did this plantation qualify for if a sea approval. was one conceives and this sort of land use was once classified as non-sustainable the environmental it's even said it's extremely harmful pretty much the only thing worse than this type of monoculture would be to pave over the

whole land. we asked matthew hansen to describe the spread of monocultures in brazil. so we zoom in to the area around you know up all this in the coast of this eco system that's called the boche atlantica you can see dramatic expansion when we see these blues these are new plantations and when we see the pinks those are all the plantations that were cleared and regroup and f.m.c. certified monocultures i mean it's a contradiction in terms right if it literally was founded to combat an overcoat monocultures now monocultures are certified this is this is. is a logical fallacy doesn't make sense. so but that i don't agree with that i do agree that you got you have to have your. your pole paper timber land uses somewhere because we all use these products and and. i don't think it's a hard argument to make that they that if this at this time in our history they

should be replacing natural force. this is atlantic forest on the east coast of brazil the level of biodiversity here used to be even higher than that of the amazon region today more than 90 percent of the atlantic rain forest has been destroyed. only the precious hillsides remain largely untouched. just a small proportion of this rain forest is actually under protection and even here illegal logging goes on. the pulp mill varicella was convicted of illegal deforestation in 2008 to day it has f.e.c. certification. but in the village of parities a local residents have been arguing with varicella about its land use policy. the land used to belong to the catholic church which then gave it to the people. but then varicella started replacing the villagers being crops with eucalyptus

plants right. here you can see the new crops growing right behind the residents houses. the eucalyptus plants suck up a lot of water leaving little for local people's crops. there are so has made a lot of these people angry they gather to tell us of their experience. this man shows us some of very souls promotional materials which claim that the company pays close attention to the rights of the rural population. but that doesn't appear to be the case here. it's more more local not awful lot of people have parodies or say that very cell has driven them off their land. and their frustration is apparent i think it is that elephant was never killed a movie that was beautiful some residents claim that the local police even showed up and forced them to leave their homes. i mean i know where they came over at

about 8 in the evening the police have close ties to bars so they didn't have a court order to fictionalise my wife and our one year old child were asleep at the time. i do you know i think you should go to the police were brutal they used machetes to hack our home to pieces the children weren't even allowed to eat 1st we were just talk to get out we were made to flee as if we were criminals that. you own the group has now gone to court to try to get their land back until there's a conviction varicella will keep its f.s.e. seal than france and present is a very very complicated issue there's a court case ongoing as long as the court has shown going and various other sort of legally holding the land there's no problem with their certificate obviously once the court case has been decided and it depending on what the outcome will be then of course we expect of us not to follow the outcome of the court. who professor the

struggles with this decision by the f a c. he says this case says varicella occupying local farmers land in power diesel . says i but it's just incredible that the people here have to fight for land and food against a company that makes toilet paper for europe. is i just can't get my head around that no matter how big picture i think this makes me really sad. over. perhaps parties 0 is an exception we drive through the large plantation toward the coast where another village has been affected by various sells land use policy. professor leisure scheme has heard there is a dispute in that indigenous reserve to. as foreigners we have written

permission to enter the reserve when we arrive the residents are headed for a meeting to talk about varicella. we wait outside until the meeting has finished. and the tribal leaders then greet us they say varicella has taken their land and is now using it to grow eucalyptus plants. lusciously tries to find out what sort of agreement the villagers worked out with faris l o lord according to f s c guidelines companies have to negotiate with local residents before they take action. no sabia no did that happen here. you know you know few days you will and there was a hearing but one of the chiefs got up and said that cell was doing everything right. he's from an area with tourism and the company paid him to say that i might . get up front that's a little. that's

a serious accusation and we wanted to talk to varicella about it. the company's certification experts 1st promised us an interview but then cancelled it. here varicella is refusing to grant our additional request for a meeting. according to the f.s.a. reports this dispute has been settled but indigenous groups say they feel very cell has stolen their land. doesn't see through they feel that the eucalyptus plantation is wiping them out. it was difficult for me to hear them say that. one of the tribal leaders said that the company is ruining the local environment and wiping them out full description always going to. eucalyptus crops have almost completely replaced the rain forest in this region. this has changed the face of the landscape . and paper products made from trees that were cut down here will have the f.s.e.

seal for sustainable forest management. and varicella has created jobs here. flourish and you have to calculate how many jobs have been created perfect or. and then weigh that against the number of people who've been deprived of their livelihood and in this case the numbers are way out of balance. if we create about 2000 jobs over hundreds of thousands of hectares and at the same time 50000 families lose their farmland and that's just not right for you to leave school and blog about state action follows notice that it's a company that has been checked every single year actions think up certified in 2008 we have had several investigations into the claims that came from difference they called us and the certification from this we can see is still completely valid and there's a lot of good things to say. so the f.s.e. is satisfied but what about the complaints from the villagers. have been involved

in a number of the formal complaints against questionable certificates some of the 1st season of them none of those have succeeded in fact on not aware that any single complaint through the f.s.b. system has ever worked. this drone has just taken off at a large primeval forest on the white sea in european russia. greenpeace employees villain the cheek and thomas henningsen want to shoot some video of clear cut logging in the devinsky forest the last remaining section of intact forest landscape here the forest is home to plants and animals facing the threat of extinction with we're. this forest is an ecological treasure trove with a wide variety of sensitive species. in this sub arctic climate the trees grow very slowly. that's why the trunks are so thin. there are

many rare mosses lichens in insects in this ancient native forest. but here too a lot of trees have been cut down by companies that have the f a c c a little provable. c. on the office he was a good idea at 1st year in russia but now it's causing a lot of damage just timber companies are hiding behind the epis the seal because there are no ecologically sustainable operations here and companies that know that are logging even more including in the primary will forest with the f.s.e. seal victims even if. the timber companies are allowed to clear up to $35.00 hectares in one go. who do you feel a. sense of that you have a straight a clear cut 10 years after you did you ever see how it actually grows back i get actually have forest again this is not bad how this area actually maybe not with

exactly the same values actually grows back into forest that is managed and valuable for people and for nature. of the car structures that area was clear cut just 5 or 6 years ago and it's going to take centuries before it looks like a real forest again this is going to think of i'd. if issy certified areas in russia taken together are larger than denmark. the trees are also being cut down to supply western consumers. the plight of. these spruce logs look there but the rings tell us that there are 60 to 70 years old. they're too small to be used for wood products so they turn these logs into poultry for paper peter goelz for most of it is used to make disposable products like toilet paper or tissues or packaging . for the population of the forest that once stood here is being turned into paper

products and then tossed away poppy into treasure for cost with a professional. tree . this. one simple action can have a profound impact look for products with the f.s.e. logo and help protect the health of our forests for all forever. our f.s.e. certified forests really in good shape this team of scientists is trying to find out. these the research group is led by a german biologist and conservationist p.r. a.b.h. . right on. the scientists have determined that the environmental damage is not confined to the loss of trees. heavy logging equipment is also compacting the soil

here. that means that water can no longer drain away making it very difficult for new trees to grow. this is the 1st scientific study to assess the impact of f.e.c. certified logging since the organization was founded in 1903. that's the researchers start by measuring trees in a non-certified area they also determine the age of the trees if a forest has a lot of old trees it's considered healthy the team also measures the temperature on extremely hot or cold days a healthy forest will moderate the temperature beneath its tree canopy a damaged forest cannot. this data will then be compared with the results from f.s.e. certified areas to determine how much the organization helps forests. the f.s.e. says it's waiting for the results. we're very interested in and of themselves the

starting purpose for evolution and we have invited him to come here and present that to us because we would like to learn as we always want to learn from from brossard. this is the university of our school where professor evolution is presenting the preliminary results of his team's research. the study was commissioned by the w w f a founding member of the f.s.e. . e.b. says that f. a c. guidelines don't have much impact on how the forest is used. this is the change in station. or force you. just go oh it's the last. us it's you the presentation unsettles the timber industry representatives present. after even gave his talk one of the logging companies withdrew its permission for us to film on their land. some managers fear the study

could damage the russian timber industry we asked matthew hanson for his opinion. for if we go over to the ark angus region you can see very clearly the clear cuts in the f. a c. landscape. the idea that. sustainable logging is represented through large scale clear cuts is difficult to understand and it's that perversion that really bothers me both as a citizen and as a scientist where. if there is a program to do sustainable logging but in fact the facts of the ground say it's actually in opposition to sustainability. it's it's has worst effects than being forthright to begin with so if you're fully transparent people know what they're buying and they sign up for that but if you're lying to the

misleading them and they think that they're doing this a stable thing with your product and in fact they're not this is of course a worse worst case i think it's true that the consuming public has been betrayed by the f a c b we've been led to believe that these labels enable us to purchase these timber products with a clear conscience but actually we now know that these products can contain wood from sustainable sources from tropical rain forest from indigenous people's lands even from forest you operations that are completely illegal. when the f.m.c. was created in 1903 the conservation school was to stop clear cutting and save the primeval forest that gold is not being reached. which is why in march $2800.00 greenpeace announced it would not renew its membership in the f.s.e. . visit also 1st see if we left because the f.s.e.

unfortunately does not ensure that primeval forest are protected from logging. but we do for this is just the. toughest for us if you're proposing a boycott against any chamber from the against any timber from the congo basin i think you're at the same time telling these countries that their forests should have no value or that they should have any benefit from the forest i think that's completely the wrong way. so the plantations will continue to expand and over the past 25 years the f.c.c. has failed to stop timber companies from destroying large tracts of forest land around the world. the impact of all that logging has been dramatic. i think that we're now probably at the stage where we have to revert back to that idea the regulation by governments is what we need of on feed we consume far too many disposable paper and wood products we have to reduce recycle and reuse and

this is beautiful. it seems we need legislation to save the primeval forests they cannot be protected with a simple seal. kickoffs a devastating set. in situ and move against you and believe can clean. up frenzy of gold in little new teams pulling it out for the lead in by a live acoustic enjoyed a spectacular victory against dr. chico.

in. every journey begins with the 1st step and every language but the 1st word published in the. rico is in germany to learn german and why not play with him simple online on your mobile and free stuff from d w z e learning course nikos fake german made easy. they were forced into an aimless mass of their bodies who appeared to. the history of the slave trade is africa's history. describes how the greed for power and profit. committed an entire continent into chaos and violence. this is the journey back into the history of slavery. our

documentary series slavery routes starts march 9th on t w. this is the w. news live from berlin and uncertain political future here in germany as plans for the euro after chancellor machall ballpark the woman tipped to take over from now says she does not want the job her shocking announcement what does on a great comp current powers decision mean for her party and for the government also coming up. syrian government troops intensify their offensive in the province the

last stronghold of anti-government rebels supported by turkey which says it will.