Consumers increasingly take personal responsibility for the environment & are driving retail decisions with regard to their carbon footprint & other issues. As an ambassador for the WWF, this article, by Stephen Poliakoff, makes an appeal to the UK wine trade to recognise the environmental & socioeconomic importance of cork oak forests before it is too late. Covering around 27M/hectares, these forests are unique to the Mediterranean region, which is one of the world's top 25 biodiversity hotspots. Of significant economic importance to the region, wine bottle stoppers currently account for around 70% (value) of the cork industry's commercial market. But, it is not just a commercial issue, it affects the cork oak forests themselves & one of the last remaining examples of a human/nature-balanced system. The decisions made now could result in the decline of the cork industry, putting thousands of jobs at risk, threaten valuable forest habitats, contribute to global diversity loss and have an effect on carbon emissions.
