The answer is not to promote boycotts of tropical timber or insist, as the Forest Stewardship Council does, that the same forest management rules apply to planted softwood as rainforests.

ECONOMIST: Letters

It dates back to 1993, when the Forest Stewardship Council, an alliance of greens and loggers, drew up a list of rules for sustainable forestry.

ECONOMIST: Western consciences can do only so much to conserve forests