Environmental groups are pressing Chilean timber companies to seek certification under the sustainable-forestry standards of the Oaxaca, Mexico-based Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), prompting a spirited industry backlash here. Newspapers have been awash in front-page stories in which timber executives warn the campaign could threaten wood exports to the key U.S. market. (Last year Chile exported $277 million in wood products to the U.S., nearly a third of all its wood-product exports.) The campaign features efforts to ensure U.S. purchasers and distributors of Chilean wood buy only FSC-certified products, and it is to include advertising—most immediately an ad in The New York Times. Chilean novelist Isabel Allende has signed on as a spokeswoman for the initiative, which involves Chilean groups... [Log in to read more]