The World’s Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!

IKEA logging old growth "high conservation value" Russian forests

The true cost of IKEA: logging old-growth forests

Those labyrinthine IKEA showrooms full of dirt-cheap shelving units have to come from somewhere. According to a report released May 16 by the Global Forest Coalition, some of them are clear-cut from old-growth forests in Western Russia.

According to the report, the Swedish nongovernmental organization Protect the Forest and the Russian environmental organization SPOK conducted a field inspection in the Russian Karelia, an area along the border with Finland, and found IKEA’s wholly owned subsidiary Swedwood was clear-cutting virgin trees 200 to 600 years old and in areas of “high conservation value.”

Clear-cutting of an old-growth forest by IKEA/Swedwood in Russia

Tags: IKEA, clear-cutting, old growth forest

0 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by booklover on October 1, 2012 at 3:14pm

Ikea is a joke. Literally! There are jokes all over the internet and t.v. shows about them. This cutting of beautiful, old forests for cheap crap is really sad.

Permalink Reply by Grinning Cat on October 1, 2012 at 6:16pm

Possible good news: according to Protect the Forest's recent press release (Sep. 27), IKEA and Swedwood have agreed to meet with Protect the Forest, Friends of the Earth Sweden, SPOK, and Greenpeace Russia to discuss the logging in Karelia.

"The meeting will take place during the fall," says Linda Ellegaard Nordström, board member of Protect the Forest. "We hope that IKEA and Swedwood will listen to the criticism from customers and environmental organizations, and stop logging valuable natural forest."

I've still signed the petition.

Permalink Reply by booklover on October 1, 2012 at 7:11pm

I tried to sign the petition Grinning Cat, but it wouldn't work. I hope the meeting goes well!

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on October 1, 2012 at 10:13pm

One can do better than Ikea, just by going to yard sales and estate sales. Much better. Lower price, higher quality. Cutting old growth forest to make disposable, self-disintegrating, ugly furniture is obscene.

Permalink Reply by booklover on October 2, 2012 at 8:13am

I totally agree Sentient. It is obscene. I was at a garage sale last weekend and saw a dresser and also an end-table, both reasonably priced. I wish I had somewhere to put them. I would have sanded them down and painted or stained them and put new hardware on them and they would have been gorgeous! Very sturdy and well-made.

RSS

Welcome to
Atheist Nexus

Sign Up
or Sign In

Or sign in with: