World Forest Day
March 21, 2010
Germans are voracious readers.
More than a billion books were printed in Europe's largest book market in 2008 - most of them first editions. That's more than 10 books for every German. But the good news for publishers isn't so great for the environment.
Increasingly, books sold in Germany are being produced in Asia, where the paper is often sourced from virgin tropical rain forest.
"Book production has changed, so that more and more books are being produced in, for example, China," said Nina Griesshammer, a forest officer at the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) in Frankfurt.
Griesshammer says this outsourcing is a problem because suppliers in Asia have different standards. She says countries rich in natural rainforests like Indonesia end up providing Chinese manufacturers with their raw materials.
"The potential that it comes from illegal logging is very high…in Indonesia, for example, you have illegal logging rates of up to 70 percent," she told Deutsche Welle.
The German branch of the WWF recently tested a number of German children's books, and found that a staggering 40 percent contained significant traces of tropical wood that is only found in virgin forest.
That's not just bad news for endangered species like Orangutans, which are gradually being deprived of their habitat. It's also disappointing news for efforts to tackle climate change. Deforestation currently accounts for over 15 percent of humans' contribution to greenhouse gases, and halting the loss of the world's forests is a relatively straight forward way of reducing emissions.
According to the WWF, the only way for consumers to avoid colluding with forest destruction is to buy books printed on recycled paper or paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
"FSC is a brand for ecological and socially friendly forest management which means that the forests are managed in a responsible way. That means no clear cutting, no pesticides, special protection for animals and respect for the rights of indigenous people," Griesshammer said.
Judging books by their covers
Griesshammer acknowledges that consumers have a difficult time when it comes to supporting eco-friendly publishing – the main motivation for buying a book is its content, not the paper it's printed on.
She is confident that consumers could drive change - but are consumers asking?
The Frankfurt branch of German book-chain Hugendubel is the city's biggest bookstore, with more than 1.5 million books in its catalogue. It serves some 3,500 customers a day.
Jens Mueller, a staff member for more than 20 years, says he has never been asked about environmentally-friendly titles, but he adds that there's an easy way for consumers to see if the book they're interested in meets FSC criteria.
"There's an imprint in every book, at the front or back which shows whether the book meets the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council, and which publisher it is from," Mueller said.
Eichborn, for example, is one of Germany's smaller book publishers, with sales of about 2.5 million books a year. With only a few exceptions, all of Eichborn's books are printed on FSC certified paper.
Cosima Schneider from Eichborn says the company approached this issue two years ago when it wanted to create "a new responsibility" for its products.
"We asked ourselves how sustainably we could work, and then we started to look how ecological our suppliers were, and if they were certified," she said.
Shortage of certified paper
Initially, it was difficult for the company to find book printers who worked with forest-friendly paper, and the company had to move its production to Sweden. Now, though, they are back in Germany.
There aren't any reliable statistics about how many of Germany's 2,000 publishing houses use recycled or certified paper. A quick random survey of 10 books in Frankfurt's Hugendubel store showed that only two were printed on FSC paper.
The good news is that some of Germany's biggest book publishers are trying to lead the way. The bad news is their suppliers can't keep up.
In 2006, for example, the country's largest publisher, Random House Germany, committed to using FSC paper for all its titles. Last year though, the company had to stop printing its mass market paperbacks on FSC paper, citing supply issues. In 2009, Random House's policy was to print only its hardback and trade paperbacks on FSC paper.
A company spokesman said last year that Random House would have to review annually which of its editions could be printed using forest-friendly paper, but that its ambition was to reach the 100 percent target.
According to Susanne Reeh at Eichborn, a lack of certified paper is a common problem facing other publishers who want to make the change.
"Paper manufacturers would like to produce more certified paper, but there is a lack of certified pulp on the market because demand is too high at the moment. This means that even if publishers wanted to, they couldn't get the paper," she said
Author: Kate Hairsine /dc
Editor: Nathan Witkop