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I received a letter and some brochures from
Haribon’s BirdLife partner organizations in the United Kingdom,
the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and in
Portugal, the SPEA. They wrote to enlist our help to spread the
message that “Cork is good for people and good for wildlife.”
The issue is about the use of corks on wine bottles. The increasing
use of artificial closures instead of natural corks presents a
threat to the cork oak landscapes of southern Europe and the people
and wildlife that depend on this ancient habitat and sustainable
industry.
Dehesas found in Spain and
montados found in Portugal are mixed farming systems, combining oak
woodlands with livestock grazing and cereal cultivation, often
interspersed by areas of scrub—heather, gorse, brooms, lavender,
rock rose and strawberry trees. Unlike other agroforestry systems,
it developed around the existing primeval woodlands. Cork is the
most economically valuable product. Spain and Portugal have more
than half of the world’s cork oak woodlands and produce around
three quarters of the world’s cork. Natural wine corks represent
approximately 90 percent of the economic value of the cork market.
The outer bark of a cork oak tree
can be stripped every 9 to 14 years without harming the tree. Since
the harvesting involves no logging, a diverse, ancient woodland
system based on native flora has developed. The oak trees and
associated shrubs bind the soil, prevent erosion and maintain the
water table by protecting the soil from evaporation. The wildlife
these forests support is unique, and includes the endangered Iberian
lynx, the Spanish imperial eagle (with a world population of around
130 breeding pairs) and the Bonelli’s eagle.
A fall in the demand for cork as
a result of the recent and ongoing switch to plastic stoppers and to
screwcaps in wine bottles would lead to many cork estates being
converted to other land uses, such as intensive farming or timber
plantations. If current trends continue, the wildlife-rich montados
and dehasas will be under severe pressure within a few years.
A number of UK supermarkets and
wine critics claim that “cork taint” spoils around one in ten
bottles of wine. They also claim a shortage of cork and that
overstripping of trees is resulting in lower-quality cork. There is
scant, if any, evidence to support any of these claims.
Cork has been used to close wine
bottles for over 3,000 years. It is natural and biodegradable. It is
produced from a sustainable agricultural system based on native
vegetation that supports a wide diversity of wildlife. Plastic
stoppers and screwcaps are a by-product of the petroleum industry.
Their manufacture requires a large input of energy and creates
pollution. They are not biodegradable and currently there are few if
any recycling facilities for them. Plastic stoppers have their own
usage problems.
The increasing market share of
artificial closures will force down cork prices. Doubling of the
current usage of artificial closures is enough to cause a
“crash” in the cork market, which is projected to occur within
10 years. This would make cork farming less economical than other
activities, such as eucalyptus logging, and would lead to conversion
of cork estates to other land uses. Removal of the native oak
forests would destroy a habitat unique in the world.
In Spain and Portugal, the cork
industry provides around 80,000 jobs—many local communities are
virtually dependent on cork. As the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization puts it: “If the market demand for cork
stoppers were to decrease significantly, the entire system could
collapse.”
Our partners, the RSPB and SPEA
call on the wine industry to give consumers a choice about what they
buy by labeling wine bottles to indicate whether they are closed
with natural cork or something artificial. In addition, they are
calling on consumers to buy wines with real cork stoppers, thereby
demonstrating their support for cork, the special places it comes
from, and the communities that produce it.
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