Enviromentally Sustainable and fair trade Christmas trees?

Answer 1

It is possible to have an environmentally sustainable and fair trade Christmas tree, but they are difficult to get hold of. A company called "Fair Trees" in Denmark grows and sells the only fair trade Christmas trees in the world, and they are grown from organically certified "Fair Seeds" too. The trees have accreditation from the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO).

The trees in question are Nordmann Fir trees, the type that keep their needles really well. They are incredibly popular in Europe and sell at high prices as they are premium quality trees. At least 50 million are sold each year.

But few people realise that these trees can only be grown from the seeds sourced from natural forests, mainly in Georgia formerly part of USSR. Every September the local people in a region called Ambrolauri risk life and limb climbing 30m high fir trees to collect the cones from which the seeds are extracted. These people are desperately poor and most live as subsistence farmers. They climb the trees without any safety equipment or insurance or even decent pay. Every year people die and are injured, leaving their families in an even more desperate state.

But Fair Trees source their own seeds from their own officially licensed lots in the forests. They provide the cone pickers with a decent wage, as well as modern safety equipment and training and health insurance should the worse happen. On other lots people are still being killed and injured as they collect cones for other organisations not so concerned with their welfare.

To see the good and bad of cone picking go to view the video at http://www.bolsxmastreefund.com/video-en.php

Any Christmas tree grower in Europe can grow Fair Trees if they agree to a few ethical guidelines. They have to grow their trees from Fair Seeds (or from saplings grown from Fair Seeds), follow responsible farming accreditation guidelines and comply with local labour laws. Then for small license fee, most of which goes to a charitable fund in Georgia that helps the local community there, the growers can sell their trees as fair trade Christmas trees, or Fair Trees.

Take up in Germany and Denmark has been good but the UK is way behind - there are no Fair Trees growers in the UK, although there are growers who buy Fair Seed from Fair Trees. A company called Fairwind imports Fair Trees from Denmark each Christmas and sells them online. Although this isn't environmentally sustainable, it does at least give the UK access to fair trade trees.

The perfect, environmentally sustainable and fair trade Christmas tree is a Nordmann Fir grown as a Fair Tree in a local nursery. And if the tree is recycled it's even more environmentally friendly! They do exist but we all need to be putting pressure on Christmas tree growers and retailers to change to Fair Trees. Then there will be more!

For more information go to www.fairtrees.co.uk or www.fairwindonline.com/blog.