Forest Certification

Forest Certification
 

What is Forest Certification?
 It is a mechanism for forest monitoring, tracing and labelling timber, wood and pulp products and nontimber forest products.
 It is a process through which quality of management from environmental, social and economic perspectives is judged against a series of agreed standards.
 There are two major international standards for sustainable management of forests and forest-based products, one has been developed by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the other by Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certifications (PEFC).
 

What are types of Forest certification?
 There are 2 types of Forest certification. I) Forest management (FM) and II) Chain of Custody (CoC).
 CoC certification is meant to guarantee the traceability of a forest product like timber throughout the supply chain from origin to market.

What about Forest Certification in India?
 The forest certification industry has been operating in India for the last 15 years.
 Currently, forests in only Uttar Pradesh are certified.
 Forty-one divisions of the UP-Forest Corporation (UPFC) are PEFC-certified, meaning they are being managed according to standards endorsed by PEFC.
 Some other states too obtained certifications, but subsequently dropped out.
 Many agroforestry projects, such as those run by ITC, and several paper mills too have forest management certification. The forests here are meant for captive use of the industry.
 Forest certification in India is still at an early stage and therefore the nation has not been able to make use of the benefits of forest certification.
 

What are India specific standards?
 India allows the export of only processed wood, not timber.
 India’s forests contribute just about five million cubic metres of wood every year. Almost 85 per cent of the demand for wood and wood products is met by trees outside forests (ToF).
 Since ToF are so important, new certification standards are being developed for their sustainable management. PEFC already has certification for TOF and last year, FSC came up with India-specific standards that included certification for ToF.