Forestry Certification

Forest and woodland certification provide a guarantee to buyers of forest products of good management of the forest where the tree was grown. This is done by an independent inspection and assessment of the forest and the way it is managed against a clearly defined set of standards. These standards, which should be applicable to all forests and woodland in an area, cover environmental, social, and economic aspects of management.

Forest certification is relatively new. It was developed in the 1990s to address concern over destruction of forests in the tropics and elsewhere, such as northern Russia, where logging was seen as an important cause of forest loss. From small beginnings development has been rapid with tens of millions of hectares of forests now certified and increasing support from retailers in countries such as the UK.

By far the largest certification system in the UK is the scheme run by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Over 1 million hectares in the UK, including all Forestry Commission woodlands are certified under the FSC scheme.

The FSC was founded by a group of environmental organisations, including WWF and Greenpeace in 1993 but is structured to achieve a consensus about how certification develops by giving similar weight to the views of environmental organisations, forestry professionals and industry, and forest dwelling peoples and traditional forest owners. Governments are excluded from FSC membership.

The FSC has a set of 10 principals and criteria (P&C)which are the agreed basis for forest management world wide. National or regional working groups which include representatives from all with interests in forests and woodlands interpret these P&C for local conditions. In this country the UK Woodland Assurance Standard is the basis for FSC certification. For more information about the FSC system see the FSC UK website and FSC International website.

An alternative system operating in UK is the Pan European Forest Certification (PEFC). Just 9,000 hectares were certified under the PEFC system in UK in January 2004. While the PEFC system has many superficial similarities with FSC it is not generally regarded as equivalent to the FSC system.

Compared to FSC PEFC:
• is not a world wide system, only applying in Europe; and
• does not require independent third party inspection of each forest certified under its regional certificates
• does not have a set of performance standards with clear minimum environmental and social thresholds. Instead each participating country sets its own standards which are approved by the PEFC general assembly.

BioRegional has supported FSC certification since our foundation as the only credible global forest certification system. All the charcoal, firewood and kindling sold through the BioRegional Charcoal Company is FSC certified. When BedZED was built specifying FSC timber was important in minimising its environmental impact. The FSC system has a good balance between different interest groups and maximises environment protection. It has proven rigorous, practical and cost effective to use

Both FSC and PEFC support their forest management certificates with “chain of custody” certification which allows certified timber to be traced from the forest all the way through production processes to the final product on sale. . Many major retailers have supported the FSC by committing themselves to sell only FSC certified wood products. Over 30% of people in a recent survey recognised the FSC label. Next time you go shopping look for the FSC label on wood products. When you have a barbeque in the summer, buy FSC certified charcoal.

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Last updated 24th January 2008