Forest certificationfor legal and sustainable forest use.

Forest certification ensures biodiversity

​​​Forest certification signifies sustainable forest use​​​

​It is important to our customers that the wood we use originates from responsibly managed forests. Third-party forest certification signifies legal and sustainable forest use to us and our customers. We want to participate in the development of sustainable forestry standards and to offer our customers as wide a range of certified products as possible. 

Only around 10% of the world’s forests are certified, but 85% of the wood used by Metsä Group has international PEFC™ and FSC® forest certification. This is an excellent rate in our industry, and our goal is to keep the share of certified wood above 80%. Of the wood we use, 100% is traceable and comes from certified or controlled forests. We promote forest certification in all of our areas of operation and actively participate in its development internationally.

Certification serves to ensure biodiversity and the preservation of habitats and biotopes typical of forests. Certification also safeguards the rights of people working in forests and ensures that forests can continue to be used for recreational purposes.​

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FSC group certification 
 

Metsä Group offers opportunities for group certification​

In 2012, Metsä Group was issued FSC group certification that covered all of the forests owned by the Group companies in Finland. In 2019, the certificate covered 174,000 hectares. Contract customers of Metsäliitto Cooperative, the parent company or Metsä Group, can also join the FSC group certificate. Forest owners have previously been offered an opportunity to join the PEFC group certificate.

Forest certification ensures that supply chain and forest management operations are sustainable. Metsä Group has chain of custody management system certification that covers all of the wood supplied by Metsä Group and all of its production plants. In addition, the forests owned or leased by Group companies have certification that ensures sustainable forest management. All of its certificates have been verified by independent certification bodies.

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Chain of Custody certification delivers the message to markets

Metsä Group’s wood tracing systems are certified and verified according to PEFC™ and FSC® Chain of Custody requirements. They both include requirements for acceptable sources of wood, documentation, internal control, definition of the certification share in products and its’ communication to customers.

When using wood from several owners as Metsä Group, it is quite understandable that it is not always certified, as forest certification is a volunteer commitment of the forest owner. A very important requirement is that if non-certified wood is used in the production of certified goods, the wood must originate from forests, covered by an appropriate control program. Wood used by Metsä Group was 85% certified.

The Chain of Custody standards define three main methods for the definition of certification share in a product:
‒ Separation method in which the certified material is kept separately from the non-certified material.
‒ Percentage based method in which the share of certified raw material is calculated per product group for a defined period.
‒ Credit based method in which credits of certified wood are gained according to the certification share of the purchased raw material. Sales decrease the amount, as well as time limits for the credits.

Metsäliitto Cooperative’s FSC logo licence code is FSC-C014476.​​

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