This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Greenpeace presenta la “Guía de la buena madera”

Choose the wood properly

Greenpeace presents the "good wood Guide"

Drafting MD15/04/2008

"Good wood Guide" of Greenpeace intends to use wood to combat climate change and discusses the risk of the 33 most consumed species in the Spanish market and gives alternative species for not collaborating with illegal logging and deforestation.

Greenpeace launches "Guide de la Buena wood" in order to promote and provide guidance on the use of this. The guide is aimed at the areas of architecture, decoration and interior design, and other groups who prescribe wood, as responsible for recruitment in the public administration, construction companies, etc. This guide is the first activity of the campaign save forests, save the climate, and is intended to be a tool to combat illegal timber and deforestation, responsible for climate change.

"In addition to a responsible consumption of forest products, citizens must demand the European Union to be taken really seriously combating deforestation and the adoption of a law to ensure that all products of forestry origin present in the market come from legal sources and a good forest management"said Miguel Angel Soto, responsible for the Spain Greenpeace forests campaign.

Choose wood correctly, the "good wood", which means working with responsible forest management that allows that they continue to maintain its role of fixing CO2, one of the gases responsible for climate change greenhouse effect. The conservation and proper use of forests is one of the most effective actions to mitigate climate change.

Eat sustainable sourced timber contributes to the economic development of rural areas, the maintenance of indigenous peoples and the quality of life of populations living in and around forests.

Almost 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation and forest degradation. A wrong choice, can therefore have a negative effect on forests, in particular for those species that are threatened or who come from regions affected by poor forest management, illegal logging, deforestation, the wars, the invasions of indigenous territories or the violation of human rights. Choosing the wood in a wrong way is may be collaborating with the disappearance of primary forest logging is often a first phase of a process of deforestation which transforms virgin forests into agricultural land or pastures for livestock. A large part of the illegal logging occurs in areas of primary forest.

The good wood guide has selected over 30 very common species in the Spanish market and has grouped them into four groups according to the different risks arising from their level of threat in the region of the planet where they come fromof the existence or not of problems in its forests, the existence of armed conflicts, etc.

The Guide sets out four categories:

* Recommended wood: wood with FSC label, recycled wood and Cork.

* Acceptable Woods: chestnut, beech, oak, pine and laricio, walnut, bamboo, etc.

* Problematic wood: spruce, larch, hemlock, eucalyptus, radiata pine, red cedar, etc.

* High-risk wood: merbau, iroko, ipé, teak, Wenge, jatoba, meranti, sapelli, etc.

We must highlight the role of forest certification FSC in ensuring that the wood comes from well managed forests, so the guide identifies the availability on the market of different species with FSC labelas well as the alternatives proposed in otherwise.

The wood is a good material. It is a natural resource, comes from trees, and can be reused and recycled. Their production and disposal does not pollute. Physical and mechanical characteristics of the wood become the best material for a large number of uses such as construction, carpentry, furniture, insulation, etc. And, very importantly, when the wood comes from a well managed forest and is a certified forest demanding as the FSC, the wood is undoubtedly the more eco-friendly material with others whose manufacturing process and elimination consumes much energy and is pollutingsuch as cement, aluminium or PVC.

"Following the instructions in this guide and choosing a good wood, construction companies, architects, decorators, interior designers, responsible for shopping or consumer may be convinced of that being a boon to the planet" Soto noted.

The FSC

The FSC (acronym of the Forest Stewardship Council or Council of forestry administration) is an independent organization, not governmental, international non-profit created in 1993, with the aim of promoting environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable forest management in the forests around the world. The FSC label allows the consumer to recognize through labelling forest products coming from a proper forest management.

There are a number of types of wood with the FSC label available on the market.

Good wood guide may be free of charge to Greenpeace to your postal address or email labuenamadera@greenpeace.es