UK: Forest Stewardship Council Certifies Welsh Woodlands
12/1/99
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Title: FSC Certifies WELSH Woodlands
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 1, 1999
CARDIFF, Wales, December 1, 1999 (ENS) - Wood produced from the U.K.
government Forestry Commission's forest land in Wales can now carry
the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) certification label. This
internationally recognized logo means that the wood comes from a
forest managed according to a set of principles and criteria -- in a
ecologically-sound, socially-responsible, and economically-viable
manner.
The new certification of these 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres) in
Wales means that the United Kingdom now has a total of 800,000
hectares (two million acres) approved, making it the sixth largest
area of certified forest in the world.
"Consumers can now take comfort from the fact that by buying wood
from Welsh forests they are helping to safeguard the future of our
forest heritage," said Christine Gwyther, the National Assembly for
Wales' Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. "As markets
increasingly look for certified products, this will also help us to
ensure that Welsh wood can compete strongly for those markets."
Forest Enterprise, the commission's agency that manages its woods,
was audited against the U.K. Woodland Assurance Scheme (UKWAS), a
certification standard agreed to earlier this year by all sectors of
the forestry industry, private woodland owners, environmental
organizations, and the government.
This standard now meets the criteria of the FSC, and woodland owners
who are successfully audited against the UKWAS standard by FSC-
accredited certifiers are entitled to use the FSC trademark. Goods
that have been audited at each stage of the manufacturing process,
from forest to factory, may use the FSC label.
If other international labels are developed, then the UKWAS standard
should provide access to those labels, too.
Auditors from SGS Qualifor, an independent body based in Oxford, U.K.
and accredited by the FSC, spent eight months covering all areas of
Forest Enterprise's management, from harvesting, landscape
considerations and wildlife management, to health and safety issues
and community involvement.
The process was challenging, said Forest Enterprise CEO Bob McIntosh.
"This has been an important exercise, not just for the consumer, but
for us, too. We have learned valuable lessons from the rigorous
scrutiny to which we were subjected, which can only serve to
strengthen our organization and increase our stakeholders' confidence
in our performance as managers of the public forests," McIntosh said.