When specifying or using forest products, some people want to know that they originated in a forestry operation that respects the long-term health of the forest and its important functions, such as wildlife habitat, recreation, and support for local communities. You can’t tell those things by scrutinizing the lumber or furniture product—that’s where certification programs come in.
The goal of forest product certification programs is to offer independent, third-party validation of responsible forest management. The certifiers are hired by the forest owner or forest products company to inspect the company’s logging and forest management practices, review its policies, and audit its records. The certifier’s job is to verify that practices on the ground conform to the relevant standard from the organization whose certification label will go on the products.
In North America the primary labeling organizations are the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and the Canadian Standards Association. FSC is active globally along with others, many of which participate in the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC), an umbrella group. These labeling organizations also control which companies can certify conformance with their standards, via an accreditation process.
Each organization has its own standards governing certification; these address everything from what practices are encouraged or banned in the forest to whether or not the auditors’ reports on an operation must be publicly available. All the organizations include a range of stakeholders, but they each have their own flavor and constituent groups. With FSC the process is largely controlled by environmental groups, while SFI’s and PEFC’s processes and standards are championed primarily by the forest products industry. Specific differences in the standards reflect these different constituencies to some extent.
For the certification to carry from the forest to the finished product, products also have to be tracked through their chain of custody—the various lumber mills and factories that transform logs into boards, panels, or paper. That means that each facility where the wood is processed or stored also has to be audited and certified to make sure it’s tracking the material properly. Each labeling organization has its own standards for chain-of-custody certification.
Depending on the rules of the labeling organization, products can be labeled as pure or mixed, when all or only part of their content comes from a certified source. Standards from each organization also differ in the controls put on the non-certified portion of a product from mixed sources. A label on the product or a chain-of-custody code on the invoice is the end-user’s indication that the product came from a certified forest.
May 1, 2011
DISCUSSIONS
Reader-contributed comments related to Forest Products Certification: How It Works - EBN: 20:5. Comments are listed with newest at the top.
Artists interpretation of FSCPosted by
Lloyd Alter
on May 3, 2011, 12:05 PM
Canadian author and artist Franke James did a wonderful explanation of the benefits of FSC.
DISCUSSIONS
RELATED ARTICLES
RELATED CATEGORIES
More comments
Canadian author and artist Franke James did a wonderful explanation of the benefits of FSC.
http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?cat=370