Copyright 2001 WWF International
November 23, 2001

London, UK - WWF, the conservation organization, today announced that the United Kingdom has become the first country in the world to certify its entire state forests area under the effective management processes of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

The UK is now one of the leading countries, in terms of percentage of their total forest area certified to FSC standards, along with Sweden, Poland and USA.

Launched in 1993 with WWF's support, the Forest Stewardship Council is the leading forest certification scheme with close to 25 million hectares certified world-wide.

The UK's achievement has been recognized by WWF as a Gift to the Earth from the Forestry Commission and Forest Enterprise, who have been instrumental in promoting certification in the UK and have certified their entire forest estate of 800,000 hectares.

"The Forestry Commission's commitment is a significant contribution towards increasing the supply of certified timber in the marketplace," said Dr. Chris Elliott, Director of WWF's Forests for Life Programme. "We are pleased to see the Commission recognizes the strong market demand for FSC certified products."

With this Gift to the Earth, the Forest Enterprise will join WWF's 95+ Group and the Global Forest and Trade Network. This network consists of businesses, companies and forest owners around the world who are committed to work with WWF on promoting good forest management, independent forest certification and the increased trade in credible certified products.

The Forestry Commission and Forest Enterprise Gift to the Earth also contributes towards the target of WWF's Forests for Life Programme on sustainable forest management, which is to have 100 million hectares of forest certified by 2005, distributed in a balanced manner among regions, forest types and land tenure regimes.

However, WWF, which is today celebrating 10 years of working with business in the UK to promote certified timber and paper products, also highlighted that, though the UK Government announced a timber procurement policy in July 2000, to WWF knowledge, to date it has not intentionally purchased any certified timber.

"It's now time for the Government to get its own house in order," said Francis Sullivan, Conservation Director of WWF-UK. "It has been identified as one of the largest sectors using timber and, by implementing a responsible timber policy, will have a massive impact on the environment for good."

For further information:WWF 95+ Group: Catherine Graham, Coordinator, tel.: + 44 1483 412 579;

WWF Forests for Life: Tori Lyall, Senior Communications Officer, tel.: +44 1483 412 460, mobile: +44 7771 818 675, e-mail: tlyall@wwf-forests.org

WWF International: Olivier van Bogaert, Press Officer, tel.: +41 22 364 9554, e-mail: ovanbogaert@wwfint.org

NOTES TO EDITORS1. Forests for Life is WWF's programme of work on forest conservation. Together with the promotion of high quality forest certification and management, WWF is also working to promote the establishment and maintenance of viable representative networks of protected areas in the world's most threatened and biodiverse forest regions, and promote forest landscape restoration initiatives to enhance the goods and services that forests provide for people and nature. Forests for Life web site: www.panda.org/forests4life

2. The innovative WWF 95+ group is a partnership between WWF and companies or organisations in the UK who produce, use, buy, sell or specify timber and paper products. The Group promotes and facilitates trade in credibly certified forest products and encourages good forest management world-wide. Members of the Group make a commitment to produce or purchase increasing amounts of their forest products from well managed, independently certified forests. For more information please see www.wwf.org.uk/95+group

3. The Global Forest and Trade Network, co-ordinated by WWF, has networks operating in North America, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the Nordic Countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland), the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Global Forest and Trade Network web site: www.panda.org/forestandtrade

4. The Gift to the Earth is WWF's highest award for a globally significant conservation achievement, which addresses WWF's conservation priorities by:

· Advancing conservation of biodiversity, or enhancing the prospects for survival of threatened species

· Addressing global threats posed by climate change, toxic chemicals and unsustainable use of resources such ast imber, freshwater and fisheries.

4. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the international organisation co-ordinating the independent certification of good forest management. For area of certified forest for each country please visit the FSC web site: www.fscoax.org Error: Unable to read footer file.