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In medieval Alsace, three main types of roofing materials were used in various forms and at the same time: thatch, wood and terracotta. The present contribution aims to provide an overview of the use of each of these materials. The period under consideration, from the 12th to the 16th century, is marked by several major developments, which are by no means linear in chronological and geographical terms: 1o the reappearance in the 12th-13th centuries of terracotta roofing in a landscape that had until then been largely dominated, as far as can be perceived, by thatch and wood roofing; 2o the development of the production of hollow hooked tiles, which became a permanent fixture in towns from the 14th-15th centuries onwards, to the detriment of other roofing materials; 3o a contrario, the continuation in thatched and wooden roofs in rural contexts, village and castles, far beyond the Middle Ages; 4o the appearance and unprecedented development, in the first half of the 16th century, of flat roofing tiles (to the detriment of the old hollow tiles whose production became marginal). The demonstration, based in particular on data from excavations and archaeological studies of the building, but also on the use of written and iconographic sources, will seek to specify the chronological stages of these developments and to determine the reasons for these changes.

Voluntary certification schemes have grown in popularity since the late 1980s. Today, a large number of consumer items from coffee and chocolate to oil palm and soya products carry labels that supposedly attest their contribution to promoting fair trade or a reduction of negative environmental impacts. Many printed books, magazines and other paper products carry a label promising 'environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable' management of the tree plantations that deliver the raw material for the pulp and paper from which these products are made. This article explores the role that one such voluntary certification scheme used by the pulp and paper sector plays in maintaining ecologically unequal exchange. Would ecologically unequal exchange in a certified product cease to exist if the voluntary certification schemes available for pulp and paper products were to become the norm, instead of just catering to a niche market? If the answer to that hypothetical question is 'no' – which it is – then the question that arises is: what role does the voluntary certification scheme play in upholding ecologically unequal exchange? This article explores the role of one particular voluntary certification scheme – by the Forest Stewardship Council – in maintaining ecologically unequal exchange in the trade of pulp products between industrialised countries with a relatively high per-capital consumption of pulp and paper products and the global South, in this case Brazil. It shows how, from the perspective of communities who bear the ecological, social and economic cost of industrial tree plantations and who oppose further expansion of these plantations, voluntary certification schemes have (inadvertently?) helped tilt the balance of power even further in favour of corporate interests for expansion. An unacknowledged imbalance of power between corporations and the certification schemes, on the one hand, and communities and their allies, on the other, has become manifest and aids further expansion of industrial tree plantations for production of pulp for export, thus contributing to maintaining ecologically unequal exchange. Key words: certification; commodity chains; conflicts; consumption; ecologically unequal exchange; environmental justice; Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), industrial tree plantations; pulp and paper; resistance struggles