The Westvaco papermaking company today will announce a five-year deal with the Nature Conservancy that will let the environmental group inspect all of the company’s 1.3 million acres of forestland and help designate areas where logging will be restricted. The two parties will agree jointly on a management plan for the land, including the amount of timber to be cut. Westvaco Chair and CEO John A. Luke Jr. said he hopes others in the industry will make similar agreements to manage forests responsibly. Paper companies and environmental groups have collaborated on a number of projects, but the scale of this arrangement is unprecedented.
