Background

Over 5 million Nordmann Fir real Christmas trees are sold in the UK each year. About 90% of the seeds for Nordmann Fir Christmas trees are sourced from the natural forests in Georgia through an auction system that is corrupt and generates hardly any income for the cone pickers.

The best seeds come from an area called Ambrolauri. Cone pickers climb 30 metre high fir trees to collect the cones from which the seeds are hand-picked. The cone and seed collectors live in desperately poor conditions with little access to healthcare or education for their children. Local infrastructure in this poverty-stricken and sorely neglected area means that schools are few and far between, and those that do exist are hardly heated in winter, have very few books and many don’t even have doors.

Real life tragic stories

The cone pickers work without any safety equipment, not even ropes. It is not uncommon for collectors to fall out of the trees and die. Here are some sad stories about just a few people from the Ambrolauri area (there are many more!).

• Anna Khedeliana lost her husband Giorgi Enukidze in 2001 whilst he was working for a company harvesting seeds in Tlugi. He climbed up a tall tree which had previously been trimmed at the top in order to make the harvesting easier. When he reached the weakened top it was not able to hold him and both he and the top plummeted to the ground. Giorgi Enukidze was 49 years old and left a wife and three children behind when he died. Since the family had no insurance they were placed in a grave predicament by the death of the husband and father. The state pays only a small annuity as long as the children are under eighteen. The Georgian seed company paid for the funeral and Anna continues to collect seeds for the same company and is still without safety equipment. Her own son has collected 1 ton of cones so far this year.
• Levan Kobakhidze only lived to 16 years of age. His school was closed due to the civil war, and wanting to help his family in Tbilisi, he began working with some friends in the forest. In 1993 while harvesting cones in Tlugi, he fell from a great height when attempting to jump from one tree to another. There was no compensation or insurance. The family barely managed to pay for the funeral, and were unable to give him a proper burial lot. After his son’s death, the father subsequently suffered depression and committed suicide a few years later. He left behind his wife Leila Kobakhidze and his twin daughters, Tea and Teona.
• In 1994 Gaga Namgaladze attempted to jump from one tree to another. Upon landing in a tree, the top snapped and Gaga Namgaladze plunged to the ground and died. He was 26 years old. Gaga Namgaladze left behind a wife and a two-year-old daughter. There was no insurance nor compensation from the state. Together with the rest of his relatives, Gaga’s brother Rati Namgaladze had to help the unfortunate family.

Danish fair trade accreditation – The Bols Xmas Tree Fund

Only one company is currently providing safety equipment, training AND insurance to the workers there; Bols Forstplanteskole grows the only fair trade Christmas trees in the world.

The Bols Xmas Tree Fund was founded in 2007, and shortly afterwards the Fair Trees® brand was certified by Fair Trade Danmark.

The Fund aims to create awareness about and improve the terrible conditions under which the Georgian cone pickers live and work. The Fund provides the cone pickers with Danish-made safety equipment and ensures that the workers are instructed on safety. In addition, the Fund works towards creating proper conditions for workers and their families through financial support for schools, books and health care. And of course the workers are paid a fair price for their work.

And only one company in the UK is importing and retailing these trees; Fairwind. The trees are now available to order from www.fairwindonline.com. 

Katie Melua

The British Georgia-born singer, Katie Melua, has pledged support for the fair trade Christmas trees project:

 “I am absolutely thrilled that fair trade has reached the poor cone pickers of Georgia. Fair Trees® is a wonderful project that helps improve the lives of many people in remote areas of Georgia, the country where I was born. I urge anyone who loves a real Christmas tree to buy a fair trade one this year – after all, it won’t cost any more than a non-fair trade tree”.

For more information please contact:

Teresa Owen                      Marianne Bols

Fairwind                             Bols Forstplanteskole

t.owen@fairwindonline.com   mb@bolsforst.dk

T: 020 8374 6254              T: 00 45 75760043

Fairwind is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Tags: christmas, fair trade, fairtrade, trees

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.