ABC (Australia) - Planet Ark Sails Into Timber Jam; Compromised By Corporate $, Say Founders
EDIT
NICK XENOPHON, INDEPENDENT SENATOR: There could be a perception of who pays the piper calls the tune - and when you're getting $700,000 in donation from the industry and you're part of a review of the forestry standard, then it raises some serious questions of a potential conflict of interest.
ADAM HARVEY: Planet Ark is also under fire for working with the timber industry to update the industry's certification system for wood products, which is called the Australian Forestry Standard. It's seen as weaker than the rival certification system, backed by the environmental movement and run by the Forest Stewardship Council.
CHRISTINE MILNE: The Australian Forestry Standard has no credibility at all. In fact it was only dreamt up in response to the Forest Stewardship Council Standard, and Australia couldn't meet that standard, and so the minister of the day went ahead and next thing we knew we had this dodgy standard which no one has any respect for.
JON DEE: The Australian Foresty Standard is a scheme that concerns many environmentalists. If you ask environmentalists about the AFS they will tell you that they're associated with clear felling, with environmental destruction, with the death of native wildlife. And so from that perspective an organisation like Planet Ark cannot be seen to be associated with that particular standard.
EDIT
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3557735.htm
(TV broadcast clip)