Citing unwillingness on the part of Resolute Forest Products to be involved in mediation efforts to resolve its suspended Canadian FSC certificates, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) announced that it has abandoned its efforts to engage Resolute in a mediation process.
In November 2015, FSC proposed a mediation process to Resolute to help the reinstatement of its suspended FSC certificates in Canada. “During a meeting with Resolute’s CEO, there were no signs that Resolute is willing to engage in efforts to resolve the problems they pointed out so eloquently. This confirms the consistent, negative signals we are receiving from Resolute, and for this reason, FSC is abandoning the idea of a mediation process involving Resolute Forest Products,” said Kim Carstensen, Director General, FSC.
In response, Resolute stated that it has not been ‘unwilling”. “This is wrong,” said Resolute’s Seth Kursman, vice-president of corporate communications, sustainability and government affairs. “On December 18, Resolute stated that ‘we would certainly support an equitable consultative mediation process.’ We also stated that ‘the provincial governments of Quebec and Ontario would be the only appropriate overseers of a mediation process. They are the stewards of public forests.’ Instead of recognizing this fact, why does FSC choose to misconstrue the facts? Could this be evidence of a strategy to try and isolate Resolute in the public eye?” Kursman continued to state that the mediation process that FSC proposed affects numerous forest products companies, not just Resolute.
