Maine Governor Paul LePage signed an executive order directing that “any new or expanded state buildings shall incorporate green building standards that give certification credits equally to forest products grown, manufactured and certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standard, Forest Stewardship Council, American Tree Farm System and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification systems.”
Metsäliitto Group has started the testing of Finland's new FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification standard in part of its own forests. The Group's forests have already been certified according to the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) standard. In future, the FSC standard will be applied in these forests as well.
A long-running violent dispute between the world’s largest teak producer and Indonesian forest communities has been resolved, resulting in the recertification of two Indonesian forest districts by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) Inc. announced today its forest certification standard has once again met the rigorous third-party assessment of the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).
Wood from forests which provide homes to some of the planet’s most endangered species is being used to construct athletes’ training facilities for next year’s London Olympics, it has been alleged.
Eucalyptus trees, from forests which date back more than 1,000 years, are being logged, despite the UN World Heritage Committee's repeated calls for that region of Tasmania to be protected.
THE FIRST tropical rainforest in the world to be certified under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards for sustainable forest management is in Sabah, Malaysia. Back in 1997, the certification of Deramakot Forest Reserve was progressive; moves to create Malaysia’s own national forest certification had not even begun yet.
Today, five out of the seven FSC-certified forests in Malaysia are in Sabah and the state aims to have all its forestry concessions FSC-certified by 2014.
The Forestry Branch of OJSC Ilim Group in Koryazhma (Arkhangelsk Oblast) has gone through audit verifying the compliance with the FSC Forest Management requirements. No significant incompliances with the international standards have been identified during the audit which was carried out by GFA (Germany). After the audit the Forestry Branch was included in the list of Ilim Group Branches covered by the multi-site Forest Management FSC Certificate.
John Paterson, Wood Purchasing Manager at Egger UK said "We were delighted to take the first deliveries of privately grown PEFC round wood from Scottish Woodlands. As a result of increasing demand for PEFC certified chipboard from our customers, we required a guaranteed supply of PEFC certified round wood. Scottish Woodlands Ltd responded to our request and having obtaining PEFC Chain of Custody was in a position to deliver.
PEFC International has unanimously approved the application of the China Forest Certification Council (CFCC) to join the world's largest forest certification system.
"The Chinese commitment to sustainable forest management and forest certification is to be welcomed," said Ben Gunneberg, PEFC secretary-general.
