FSC certification fights deforestation

In Brazil, forestry maintains forests, says Janne Näräkkä. He wants to make certification increasingly popular across the world.

Articles
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09.10.2025
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Sustainability

Mission to expand FSC worldwide

In March, Janne Näräkkä, Director, FSC® Certification, attended a meeting of the international FSC Board of Directors in Sao Paulo in Brazil. After the meeting, he enjoyed a tasty, locally produced beefsteak. The next day, he flew to Porto Velho in western Brazil and drove a few hours through the rainforest – or what was left of it.

Over the years, forests had been cut down as far as the eye could see, whether to make way for cattle farming or because of illegal logging. Some former rainforest areas were used for growing soya, and endless lines of lorries could be seen transporting soya to ports for export to China.

The extent of deforestation became quite obvious to Näräkkä. Brazilian beef has not appealed to him since the trip, and he’s also hesitant about soya.

Brazil’s forest crisis and FSC’s role

It is difficult to fight deforestation in Brazil, and the government has been unable to find the means or the will to do so. Currently, one effective way is to obtain FSC forest certification, which was developed more than 30 years ago to combat forest damage in the tropics. In Brazil, the state leases some of the natural forests it owns to private companies and sets strict conditions for their forest management. The conditions make it easy for the companies to obtain FSC certification. The FSC opens up the global market for wood and guarantees a better price. It also ensures that the forest remains a forest, as only a few trees can be retrieved at a time from FSC-certified forests.

“Forestry maintains forests – that much became clear in Brazil. A forest with no value won’t remain a forest,” says Näräkkä.

He says he went on site and used drones to inspect the border between an FSC-certified forest estate and a non-FSC forest. It practically marked a line between forest and wasteland. In other locations, logging can be indiscriminate at worst, but the FSC guarantees trees are preserved. However, a certificate alone is not enough – guards hired by the company patrol the forests, making sure that no one steals wood from FSC forests.

“The visit opened my eyes. The FSC really prevents deforestation.”

Although the government’s practice of leasing out forests contributes to the fight against deforestation, the problem is that there aren’t enough FSC forests in Brazil. They only account for less than two per cent of the vast forest areas.

What is FSC? FSC is a non-profit organization, providing trusted solutions to help protect the world’s forests and tackle today’s deforestation, climate, and biodiversity challenges. Currently, over 150 million hectares of forest worldwide is certified according to FSC standards, designed to address a broad range of environmental, social, and economic factors. Read more on FSC's website.

Why FSC matters for global forest management

Näräkkä has been on the international FSC Board of Directors since 2020. He was appointed by an election in which the FSC’s 1,200 personal and organisation members worldwide had the opportunity to vote. Näräkkä is a member of the Board’s Economic Chamber and represents it according to the FSC’s rules. However, his salary is paid by four Finnish forest industry companies, including Metsä Group.

Näräkkä defines his task as making FSC certification so attractive that it is worthwhile for the forest owner to get it.

There’s plenty of work to be done. Of the approximately 4 billion hectares of forest in the world, only around 160 million hectares are FSC-certified. The figure was much higher just four years ago, but when Russia invaded Ukraine, both Russia and Belarus were removed from the statistics. That meant a reduction of approximately 70 million hectares of FSC forest. Worldwide, tropical FSC forests cover approximately 13 million hectares.

According to Näräkkä, more FSC-certified area is required.

"We need more hectares because it’s the only way we can really make an impact on forest management globally. No matter how great a system we have, if no one uses it, our work is in vain.”

However, Näräkkä emphasises the importance of not setting the bar too low – that is, not abandoning the FSC principles – to achieve this. There are other ways.

Challenges and solutions in FSC adoption

One of the problems of FSC is the bureaucracy involved in joining, which raises the threshold because the forest owner must have a forest plan, for example. In Finland, the process is easy because Metsä Group, for example, handles much of the paperwork on behalf of the forest owner, but in many countries, joining has been made much too difficult for small forest owners.

Another area of improvement concerns rules. On FSC’s Board, Näräkkä wants to make sure that the rules are not changed too often because it alienates members. The rules must also include some flexibility to accommodate local conditions. It’s obvious that the same forest management methods will not work in Brazil and Finland, but the general FSC principles must still apply everywhere.

FSC should not be too expensive either. For example, in some member countries, forest audits cost too much.

“I want to address this as well because certification costs must be reduced. After all, how the FSC rules work is in our hands. In some countries, auditors work hard to find any fault in forest management in an attempt to portray themselves as credible auditors,” Näräkkä says.

Making FSC an attractive option could lead to a self-reinforcing cycle: the greater the number of forest owners holding an FSC certificate, the greater the number of those who want to obtain it. FSC certification is popular among Metsä Group’s customers. In the paperboard business, it is often a prerequisite for initiating negotiations with customers (see Viesti 2/2025).

“I visited a local sawmill in Brazil. I was told you didn’t need FSC to sell planks in Brazil, but if you wanted to export products, it was a must,” says Näräkkä.

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Published in Metsä Group Viesti magazine 3/2025.