Metsäliitto is committed to promoting sustainable forestry. This means two things: we manage forests in a proper way and we know the origin of the wood we deliver to our mills.
We do this by forest certification. It gives competent, independent, third-party evidence that we follow the external criteria for sustainable forest management. Over the last few years, Metsäliitto has achieved good results in these certification audits. These positive results mean our customers can be sure that wood-based products delivered by Metsäliitto Group come from forests that are ecologically, sociologically and economically well managed.
New PEFC criteria introduced 1 Jan 2011
The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) is the largest international forest certification system. In Finland, practically all forests are certified by PEFC Finland. At the beginning of this year, the Finnish standards were renewed as previous requirements were sharpened and two entirely new criteria were adopted: instructions for harvesting energy wood and the consideration of everyman’s right in forest management. In my opinion, the level of forest management in Finland will only get better. In Metsäliitto we make sure that our personnel, including harvesting subcontractors and their drivers, keep up to date with the new PEFC criteria. Of course it’s a challenge for the organisation, but it’s the only way to keep the standards of our operations high.
Agreement on FSC standard reached
The other global certification system, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), has not been valid in Finland – that is until now. At the end of 2010, the Finnish FSC standard for forest management was approved and was introduced in the beginning of May in 2011. Although FSC will gradually become more prominent in Finnish forestry, it will take some time before it becomes visible in everyday actions.
Although FSC and PEFC are, to some extent, competing schemes in the end product market, the differences between them are not so great. If we look at this from a forestry perspective, land owners now have the possibility to double-certify their woods with both systems.
It’s worth mentioning that Metsäliitto’s mills hold Chain-of-Custody (CoC) certificates from both systems. This means that while we have the readiness to deliver either PEFC or FSC wood to our customers, FCS-certified wood - wood originating from FSC-certified forests - only exists in small amounts in Finland for now. And furthermore, if our customers, for example, have their own CoC certificates, they can use the same markings (PEFC or FSC) when marketing and selling their wood-based end products.
Whether a product is PEFC or FSC certified isn’t the most important issue at stake. What matters is that wherever they are in the world, our customers can be confident that when they buy a product from a Metsäliitto Group company, it comes from a sustainably managed forest.
Jyrki Sopanen
Environmental Manager, Metsäliitto Cooperative