World Wild Life Fund calls for Cork.  Add/Read Comments

In Spain and Portugal, cork and holm oak forests are home to the Iberian lynx (the world's most endangered big cat) and the Spanish imperial eagle (one of the most endangered birds of prey in the world) the main reason why the World Wild Life Fund has called on winemakers not to abandon the use of corks. Of course there are the cork taint issues to consider but this needs to be balanced with the estimated 27,500 industrial jobs and 35,000 forestry jobs that could would disappear if cork is abandoned entirely. At present the cork industries of Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Italy, Tunisia and France maintain 2.7m ha of land and provide income sources for 100,000 people.

Decanter
"In a leaflet entitled 'Cork Screwed? Environmental and economic impacts of the cork stoppers market' the WWF argues for the preservation of the US$329m cork industry. It predicts that by 2015, 95% of wine bottles will be closed with alternatives to cork. Annual cork production will go down from 300,000 tonnes to 19,500 tonnes."