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UK First to Certify All State Forests LONDON, UK, December 13, 2001 (ENS) - The United Kingdom has become the first country in the world to certify all its state forests under the sustainable management processes of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This increases the supply of certified timber in the marketplace and makes it easier for government forest managers in other countries to follow suit. The conservation organization WWF, known in Europe as the World Wide Fund for Nature and in North America, as the World Wildlife Fund, has recognized the achievement as a Gift to the Earth from the UK Forestry Commission and Forest Enterprise. These agencies have been instrumental in promoting certification in the UK and have certified their entire forest estate of 800,000 hectares (3,088 square miles) to FSC standards. The Forest Stewardship Council Principles and Criteria address ecological, social and economic aspects of forest management. In order to be certified, a company or forest agency must:
Launched in 1993 with WWF's support, the Forest Stewardship Council is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that co-ordinates the independent certification of good forest management. The Forest Stewardship Council now has close to 25 million hectares certified worldwide. For area of certified forest for each country please visit the FSC web site: http://www.fscoax.org
"We are pleased to see the Commission recognizes the strong market demand for FSC certified products." WWF's goal for its Forests for Life Programme on sustainable forest management is to have 100 million hectares (3.86 million square miles) of forest certified by 2005, distributed in a balanced manner among regions, forest types and land tenure regimes. The UK is now one of the leading countries, in terms of percentage of their total forest area certified to FSC standards, along with Sweden, Poland and the United States. With this Gift to the Earth, UK's Forest Enterprise will join WWF's 95+ Group and the Global Forest and Trade Network. The innovative WWF 95+ group is a partnership between WWF and companies or organizations in the UK who produce, use, buy, sell or specify timber and paper products. Members of the Group make a commitment to produce or purchase increasing amounts of their forest products from well managed, independently certified forests. For 10 years WWF has worked with business in Great Britain to promote certified timber and paper products. Now the organization wants the government to implement a program of purchasing that uses certified timber. Although the UK government announced a timber procurement policy in July 2000, to WWF knowledge, it has not yet intentionally purchased any certified timber. "It's now time for the Government to get its own house in order," said Francis Sullivan, conservation director of WWF-UK. "It has been identified as one of the largest sectors using timber and, by implementing a responsible timber policy, will have a massive impact on the environment for good." Links: Find Great Britain FSC National Standards: http://fscus.org/html/standards_policies/principles_criteria /gb_nat_stand.html Forest Stewardship Council United States: http://fscus.org/html/about_fsc/index.html Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2001. All rights reserved. |
