Forest and Wood Certification. Ed. 7/2000
Newsletter Forestry and Wood Certification / No. 109 – AprilMarch 2001
2
/ NewsletterForestry and Wood Certification
No. 109 – AprilMarch 2001
Contents
Certification in Europe 1
Estonia Aims for FSC Reindeer Herders Oppose Logging Under PEFC 1
Financial Services Company Invests in Credible
Certification 1
FSC – A Tool Against Poverty 2
Leading Manufacturer of Veneer Panelling Backs Eco Label 2
SKAL’s Authority Suspended to Issue FSC Certificates 2
Polish NGOs Support FSC 2
NGOs from Central and Eastern Europe Call for FSC 3
Spanish Consumers Desire Credible Label 3
Jumbo Will Market Only FSC Labelled Products 3
Russian Forest in the Web 3
Consumer Organisations Cannot Recommend PEFC Label 2
FSC Certification Takes Off in Norway 2
Paper Sector Seeks Consumer Trust 2
Researchers Sleep Well in FSC Residence 2
It Is the NGOs’ Duty to Inform the Consumer 3
Finnish Forest Owners Association Spreads False Claims 3
FSC – a Tool to Save Europe’s Forest Heritage 3
Certification Worldwide 3
SFI Certifies Clearcutting of Pristine Ancient Forests 3
Ten Companies Can Help Save the World’s ForestsFSC Standards Under Development in Latin America 3
Brazil Nuts Reach the Marketplace 3
Ontario Seeks FSC Certification Supply of FSC Products Is Rapidly Increasing 4
Analysts Recommend FSC Players for Stock Portfolios 4
UNEP Says FSC Certification Needs to Be Extended 4
Explore the World of Certification 4
The Future for Brazilian Forests 4
Leaders for Responsible Forestry 4
U.S. Company Pulls Out of Chilean Woodchip Mill 5
Tropical Forest Trust Honored for Its Engagement 4
First Joint FSC-LEI Certificate Awarded in Indonesia 4
Ford Foundation Commits $ 10 Million to the FSC 4
Interfor Gives in to Environmentalists 4
Certified Forest Products International Conference and Showcase Takes Off 5
5
Certification in Europe
Estonia Aims for FSC
The Estonian State Forest Management Centre recently decided to assess its management of 830,000 hectares of forest land according to FSC standards and ISO 14.001 certification guidelines. The company’s annual logging volume is around three million m3.
State forest agencies in all Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - have thus started FSC certification.
Source: SmartWood public announcement (Estonia),
5 April 2001.
Financial Services Company Invests in Credible Certification
Friends, Ivory & Sime, the market leading socially responsible investment manager, recently became the first financial services company to join the WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network. Friends, Ivory & Sime, with
Є 60.4 billion (£ 37.4 billion) under management, committed to engage with companies in which it invests to encourage them to source timber and wood products from independently certified forests. Initially the investment manager will focus on the construction sector. “We fully support independent forest certification, especially certification with global coverage that addresses the full range of environmental and social issues relevant to forest management,” said Rachel Crossley, Senior Analyst with Friends, Ivory & Sime. “Friends, Ivory & Sime believes that the FSC is the only certification programme that currently meets all these citeria.”
Sources: eFinancialNews (United Kingdom), 9 April 2001. WWF UK press release, 6 April 2001. For more information, see www.panda.org/forests4life.
FSC – A Tool Against Poverty
FSC is an important tool for the Swedish Church in its cooperation with developing countries. Reforestation is part of many of the Church’s aid projects and FSC provides the mechanism to manage forests responsibly. By supporting the FSC process, people living in Third World countries will profit more from the production of tropical timber.
Swedish archbishop K. G. Hammer said, "A fundamental, positive element of the FSC process is that all stakeholders together decide how forests should best be managed from economical, social and environmental aspects. All interests must respect each other to agree upon a common goal that will result in responsible forest management that preserves biodiversity and recognises people's needs."
Sources: Gotlands Tidningar (Sweden), 17 March 2001. www.fsc-sweden.org/gron/nyheter.htm.
Leading Manufacturer of Veneer Panelling Backs Eco Label
Decospan, Europe’s largest producer of veneer panelling, announced at the end of March that it will buy as many wood products as possible from well-managed forests. “We will buy FSC certified timber because more and more of our customers want environmentally-friendly products,” said Jan Desmet, President of Decospan.
Decospan produces over five million m2 of veneered panels per year. Par-ky, its subsidiary, processes one million m2 of veneered flooring annually and exports to more than 40 countries worldwide.
Sources: De Financieel Economische Tijd (Belgium),
28 March 2001. L'echo des bois (Belgium), April 2001.
WWF European Policy Office press release, 27 March 2001. For more information, see www.panda.org/forests4life.
.
SKAL’s Authority Suspended to Issue FSC Certificates
FSC has temporarily suspended the authority of SKAL, an FSC-accredited certification body, to issue new certificates. FSC took this decision in March after its annual office audit of SKAL had revealed that the company’s operating practices did not fully comply with FSC procedures.
The current suspension means that SKAL may not issue any new forest management or chain-of-custody certificates until it can demonstrate that it meets or exceeds FSC standards. FSC and SKAL feel confident that SKAL will again be capable of meeting FSC’s procedural expectations within a short period of time and will then be reinstated.
Sources: FSC press release, 30 March 2001.
Holz-Zentralblatt online (Germany), 17 April 2001. For more information, see www.fscoax.org.
.
Polish NGOs Support FSC
In Warsaw, thirty Polish NGOs publicly announced their common position on forest certification during a seminar, “FSC – New Opportunities”, held on 20 April 2001. The NGO group backs the FSC because it is the only framework currently fully meeting basic requirements for credible forest certification. The group affirmed that any certification system needs to improve forest management, must be based on national or sub-national level standards compatible with FSC’s principles and criteria, and must guarantee broad stakeholder participation. The NGO group called for elaborating Polish FSC criteria and indicators in cooperation with all interested groups.
“Polish criteria and standards will be developed by the country’s FSC Working Group by the end of 2001,” said Robert Knysak, WWF Project Leader, at the seminar. Thirty company representatives from the Polish timber industry, among them IKEA, and Kronowood and Kronopol, producers of wood-based products, attended the seminar to discuss the perspectives of FSC certification.
Sources: Statement by Polish Environmental Organisations on Forest Certification, March 2001. Rzeczypospolita (Poland), 21/22 April 2001. WWF Poland Country Office press release, 20 April 2001. For more information, see www.wwf.pl..
NGOs from Central and Eastern Europe Call for FSC
Late in February, fourteen environmental NGOs in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Russia and Estonia signed a joint statement on forest certification. Friends of the Earth and WWF, among others, acknowledged that a range of initiatives may improve forest management. However, they believe that FSC is the only system currently meeting basic requirements for credible forest certification. The NGO group pointed out that any forest certification scheme must improve forest management, be globally applicable, ensure equitable stakeholder participation, and assess the forest at the management unit level.
Sources: Statement by Central and Eastern European Environmental Organisations on Forest Certification, February 2001. WWF Poland Country Office press release,
5 April 2001. For more information, see www.wwf.pl.
.
Spanish Consumers Desire Credible Label
A joint survey conducted by the OCU (Users and Consumers Organisation) and WWF/Adena last December showed that Spanish consumers are very conscious of opportunities that credible certification can provide to preserve the world’s forests. More than 95 percent of the interviewees believed that labelling products coming from sustainably managed forests (FSC) is a good idea. Seventy percent would pay between 5 and fourteen percent more for FSC products. Four out of five consumers would go to a store other than their usual one to purchase them.
Source: "Forests and Responsible Consumption - Spanish consumer interest towards products from sustainable forest management", a survey by OCU (Users and Consumers Organisation) and WWF/Adena in Spain, December 2000.
Financial Services Company Invests in Credible Certification
Friends, Ivory & Sime, the market leading socially responsible investment manager, recently became the first financial services company to join the WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network. Friends, Ivory & Sime, with Є 60.4 billion (£ 37.4 billion) under management, committed to engage with companies in which it invests to encourage them to source timber and wood products from independently certified forests. Initially the investment manager will focus on the construction sector. “We fully support independent forest certification, especially certification with global coverage that addresses the full range of environmental and social issues relevant to forest management,” said Rachel Crossley, Senior Analyst with Friends, Ivory & Sime.
“Friends, Ivory & Sime believes that the FSC is the only certification programme that currently meets all these citeria.”
Sources: eFinancialNews (United Kingdom), 9 April 2001. WWF UK press release, 6 April 2001. For more information, see www.panda.org/forests4life.
Jumbo Will Market Only FSC Labelled Products
Jumbo-Markt, one of Switzerland’s leading retailers, recently announced that by 2005 it will offer only FSC certified wood products to its customers. "We think it makes sense to promote only one label in the future to reduce confusion about all the labels that presently exist. Since the FSC label is currently the only one accepted all over the world, that is the one we will concentrate on," the company stated in a recent letter. Starting in 2002, Jumbo will purchase tropical timber and wood from other virgin forest regions only if it stems from FSC certified forest operations. By 2003, the retailer will buy Swiss timber only if it has the FSC label.
Source: Jumbo-Markt AG letter, 20 March 2001.
Russian Forest in the Web
WWF Russian Program Office set up a new website for its Pskov Model Forest Project in European Russia. The site provides information on the multiple use of forest resources and statements by forestry experts, environmentalists and sociologists.
For more information, visit www.wwf.ru/pskov.
Reindeer Herders Oppose Logging Under PEFC
In an open letter to Inarilainen, a Finnish newspaper, the Hammastunturi reindeer herding cooperative accused the Finnish state-owned Forest and Park Service (FPS) of ignoring the cooperative’s call for a stop to logging in its reindeer's winter pastures in the Menesjärvi-Solojärvi area. As early as 1993, the cooperative had disapproved of FPS logging in this area, now certified according to the PEFC scheme. “The situation has grown worse and worse,” herders complained. “Quite recently there was logging that we were not given prior notice of. This is called with fancy terms ‘negotiation’ and ‘participatory planning’,” herders wrote, describing the wording used in the Finnish PEFC standard.
In coming years, the FPS plans to log the last two significant unlogged forests, Passiloselkä and Kynsileikkaamanniemi, in the cooperative’s current feeding grounds. Reindeer depend on these undisturbed tree lichen-rich forests as a food source in winter. Logging these sites would inevitably remove the trees on which lichen grow.
In their letter, the cooperative’s representatives emphasised that reindeer herding is not only a profession, but also a significant part of their culture.
Source: Open letter in Inarilainen (Finland), written by members of the Hammastunturi reindeer herding cooperative, 1 March 2001.
Consumer Organisations Cannot Recommend PEFC Label
The Consumer Protection Organisation in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the largest of its kind in Germany, is critical of the introduction of PEFC certified products to the German market planned for the next months.
“In practice the PEFC system exhibits substantial deficits. The Finnish forestry sector in particular, which has the largest PEFC share so far, has repeatedly attracted attention because of questionable awarding of certificates and clear-cutting in ecologically valuable forest areas. There is no sign of improvement in the status quo right now. Yet, at do-it-yourself stores Finnish PEFC timber cannot be separated from German PEFC timber, so that the Consumer Protection Organisation in NRW cannot advise to buy PEFC certified products for the time being,” the organisation concluded in its statement of
20 March 2001.
Instead it advised consumers to look for the FSC certificate which guarantees credible ecological and social minimum standards for forestry. The consumer organisation would welcome mutual recognition only if standards were at least as high as those of the FSC.
The German Consumer Initiative came to the same conclusion already in January. It stated that the PEFC system does not meet the requirements towards a credible label for environmental and social responsible forest management.
“The label is of little value to consumers. It just creates more confusion around the already loose concept of sustainable forestry,“ said Ralf Schmidt, the Consumer Initiative’s expert on environment.
Sources: Statement by the Consumer Protection Organisation in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), 20 March 2001. Consumer Initiative press release, 18 January 2001. Assessment of Wood Certificates, Consumer Initiative, March 2001.
More information: Consumer Protection Organisation in North Rhine-Westphalia, Udo Sieverding, . Consumer Initiative, Ralf Schmidt, expert on environment of the Consumer Initiative, .
FSC Certification Takes Off in Norway
Opplysningsvesenets fond, the Church of Norway's national fund, took an important step towards responsible forestry in March by applying for FSC certification for 3,800 hectares of its forest land. This area is in the southwestern part of Norway and managed by NORSKOG, a Norwegian forest owners’ association.
Source: WWF Norway press release, 14 March 2001.
Paper Sector Seeks Consumer Trust
Paper and printing businesses in Europe have become increasingly aware of environmental and social issues. Paperback, the leading green paper merchant in the UK, and brühl druck + pressehaus giessen, publisher of the Giessener Anzeiger, a German newspaper, were recently awarded FSC Chain-of-Custody certificates. brühl druck + pressehaus giessen is the first print shop in Germany to receive the coveted FSC certificate.
Sources: FSC press release, 28 February 2001. Giessener Anzeiger (Germany), 16 March 2001. Druckspiegel (Germany), 20 March 2001.
Researchers Sleep Well in FSC Residence
In May the Swedish foundation Vetenskapsstaden (”Science City”) will be inaugurating a new residence for guest researchers in Roslagstull, Stockholm constructed exclusively with FSC certified wood from AssiDomän. In this project, the foundation adopted the recommendations of the Swedish government for the public sector to procure FSC labelled forest products.