“It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it”
- A vote this week could allow logging companies carrying the FSC ‘green label’ to destroy precious ‘Intact Forest Landscapes’ (IFLs) currently protected by the scheme’s rules
- IFLs – large tracts of virgin forest – are vital for both biodiversity and the climate. The proposal to change the rules claims that IFLs slated for logging will be lost come what may, but the damage will be reduced if this happens under FSC controls
- However, new Earthsight research on IFLs in Indonesia – home to more of these crucial forests than any other tropical country except Brazil – shows that this argument is false
- The analysis found that IFL is being lost eight times faster in FSC-logging concessions in Indonesian Papua than in uncertified concessions
- Satellite images also reveal that visible damage to IFLs caused by logging in FSC-certified concessions is worse than that caused by logging in uncertified concessions, despite claims that it is ‘Reduced Impact Logging’
- FSC members must reject Motion 45 at this week’s General Assembly, which would remove a strict limit on the amount of IFL that FSC-certified firms can degrade through logging
Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) – large tracts of forest unaffected by human activity – are critical for the climate and biodiversity. Though they comprise only 20 per cent of remaining tropical forests, they account for 40 per cent of the carbon those forests store. Many umbrella mammal and bird species require such large habitats to survive. Yet these precious landscapes are being lost at an accelerating rate. By far the largest culprit is industrial logging.1
For these reasons, in 2014, FSC’s membership approved a Motion calling for the protection of the “overwhelming majority” of Intact Forest Landscapes within FSC-certified logging concessions.2 But the big tropical logging companies have been battling to water this down ever since, and the top brass at FSC have been lending a helping hand.
At the last General Assembly in 2021, FSC released an Orwellian and deeply patronising video arguing – like that famous Major during the Tet Offensive – that in order to save Intact Forest Landscapes, it was necessary to destroy them.3
As academics have pointed out, “by definition, selective logging and establishment of associated infrastructure in an IFL reduce its area.”4 Yet FSC was arguing for exactly that.
Already, ‘temporary’ exemptions have been allowed in Africa and Latin America to the requirement that 80 per cent of intact forest within an FSC-certified logging concession be protected.5 At the General Assembly in Panama this week, Motion 45/2025, if approved, will remove that limit entirely.6 What it proposes to replace it with is a meaningless collection of adjectives. The reality is that the gloves will be off.
FSC’s argument is that if companies are not allowed to log IFLs and give the timber an FSC badge of approval, they will log it without that badge. Without FSC’s controls, that logging will be more damaging, and the chances of the forest being allowed to fully recover in subsequent decades will be reduced.7
Studies have actually shown that more IFLs are being lost in FSC-certified logging concessions than in uncertified ones.8 But in an academic article published in 2024, the proponent of Motion 45/2025 and his co-authors (including an FSC employee) brush that off, saying that such studies “lack the long-term perspective.”9
Rather than have us judge the impact of logging on IFLs inside FSC concessions now, the authors would rather we decide what to do based on what they expect to be the case in seventy years’ time.10 What they seem not to have noticed is that the planet will most likely have already fried by then if urgent steps – including to halt deforestation and forest degradation – are not taken in the meantime.
The study showing degradation of IFLs to be worse in FSC-certified concessions related only to the Congo Basin. But Earthsight’s new analysis suggests that the same is true in another key country for tropical forest conservation: Indonesia.
Indonesia is a global hotspot for both Intact Forest Landscapes and their loss. During 2000-2013, 39 million hectares of IFL were lost in the country. Within the tropics, only Brazil lost more.11
Timelapse of logging in intact forest within an FSC certified concession in Indonesian Papua, December 2023 to October 2025 © Earthsight. Image source: Sentinel 2
Almost all of the remaining IFLs in Indonesia outside of national parks are in Papua, the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea. Using publicly available satellite imagery and concession maps, Earthsight has conducted a rapid analysis of loss of Intact Forest Landscapes in Papua between January 2024 and October 2025.
The results (see table below) are striking. We found 14,708 hectares (ha) of IFLs had been degraded by industrial logging within FSC-certified concessions during the last 22 months (January 2024 to October 2025). That is some 32 football pitches every day. This compares to less than 5000ha lost in uncertified concessions during the same period, despite the fact FSC certified concessions are a minority of the total. Almost 10 per cent of the IFL remaining in FSC logging concessions has been lost since January 2024. In uncertified concessions, the figure is just 1.2 per cent.
Motion 45 and the associated academic paper by the same author argues that the impact of logging on Intact Forest Landscapes can be reduced through the use of ‘Reduced Impact Logging’ (RIL) techniques. The FSC-certified concessions in Papua claim to already use such methods. But the satellite images tell a different story. Images of logging inside these concessions show a level of destruction visibly greater than that seen in images of logging in IFLs in uncertified concessions (see images below). This is also reflected in the quantities of timber being extracted. Data on log purchases by large mills in Indonesia during 2024, obtained and analysed by Earthsight and our Indonesian partner Auriga, reveal that two of the three largest tropical log producers in Indonesia are FSC-certified concessions in Papua where logging of IFLs is taking place.
As things stand, the loss of IFLs in these concessions should be halted when it reaches the 20 per cent threshold, as per current FSC rules. But if Motion 45 is passed, the destruction is likely to continue until all the virgin forest in these concessions is subjected to the level of destruction seen in the image below.
FSC members must not be fooled by the doublespeak being peddled by those intent on removing protection of intact forest landscapes. They must reject Motion 45.
Satellite images of recent logging activity in Intact Forest Landscapes in an FSC-certified concession (left) and an uncertified concession (right) in Papua, Indonesia
References
1P Potapov, M C Hansen, L Laestadius, S Turubanova, A Yaroshenko, C Thies, W Smith, I Zhuraleva, A Komarova, S Minnemeyer and E Esipova (2017) ‘The last frontiers of wilderness: Tracking loss of intact forest landscapes from 2000 to 2013’ Science Advances (3) 1, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1600821#sec-5
2FSC General Assembly Motion 65/2014
3FSC International (2022), ‘FSC on Intact Forest Landscapes’ (video), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC-o2Qw9OFk
4P Potapov et al, ) ‘The last frontiers of wilderness’, Section 5.
5FSC, ‘Revision of requirements for Intact Forest Landscapes (IFL) conservation’, https://connect.fsc.org/current-processes/revision-requirements-intact-forest-landscapes-ifl-conservation
6FSC General Assembly Motion 45/2025, ‘Moving beyond fixed thresholds to outcome-based conservation for intact forest landscapes (IFLs)’, as amended 17 September 2025.
7Ibid.
8P Potapov et al, ) ‘The last frontiers of wilderness’, Section 5.
9J A Zwerts, C M. van der Linde, G J Praamstra, J Schipper, F Trolliet, P O Waeber, C A Garcia (2024) ‘Feasibility and effectiveness of global intact forest landscape protection through forest certification: the conservation burden of intact forest landscapes’, Front. For. Glob. Change. 7:1335430. doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2024.1335430. Principal author of this academic article, Joeri Zwerts, is an FSC individual Member and the proponent of Motion 45/2025, and the article is cited within it. One of the co-authors of this paper was Frank Trolliet, an FSC International employee.
10Ibid. The paper admits that “if logging takes place, no matter how responsibly, the area of IFL will shrink in the short term and it will require 30 to 70 years to recover.”
11P Potapov et al, ) ‘The last frontiers of wilderness’, Section 5.
