Advantages of FSC certification for the Russian timber industry

Receiving the FSC certificate, the business takes on additional obligations, but do not forget that this is for him additional opportunities: access to export markets, integration into modern trends. Communicating with companies, representatives of the FSC center notice that responsible forest management has a positive impact on the system of business processes, corporate culture and relationships with partners are being reviewed.

CR 157, Roeser, District de Luxembourg, Lëtzebuerg

The theme of ecology is actively developing in the world. FSC has been operating in Russia since 2002. Manager on work with key clients of the Russian office of FSC Lily Kamaeva noticed that at the moment, according to the scheme of FSC certified 202 million hectares of forest in 82 countries and 35 thousand certificates supply chain in 122 countries. Russia has already certified 47.65 million hectares, which is 23% of all certified forests in the world. Russia is the second player in this market, after Canada, where 54 million hectares are certified. As for the number of supply chain certificates, Russia ranks 16th in the world out of 122 participating countries, and currently 724 supply chain certificates have been issued.

The certificate of responsible forest management is received by companies that have their own leased areas and want to work in the field of responsible forest management. Those who do not have their own raw material base, and buy certified raw materials, receive a certificate of the supply chain. Many players can participate in this chain, but each of them must have a certificate. Only in this case the scheme of responsible forest management is legal and the company confirms its policy of responsible forest management and reforestation.
If we talk about certification in the Board and plywood industry, in the world 14 630 certificates were issued for wood boards, which corresponds to 42% of the total number of supply chain certificates in the world. In Russia – 117 certificates or 16% of the total number of supply chain certificates. The documents were issued to 60 companies, which are the leading participants of the industry and occupy 90% of the market volume.

If you want to start certified plywood plant when exporting their products? The main stages in the certification algorithm are the appeal of the responsible person at the enterprise to the consultant, and then to the auditor of the forest stewardship Council for preliminary inspection. When passing this stage begins the preparation and collection of necessary documents. If discrepancies are found, an individual certificate is issued for five years after their correction, and during this period, the company’s activities are monitored every year. The certificate is then renewed. When a company has its own lease forest land, and it alone is cut timber, then the original certificate is required for forest management, and then a chain of custody certificate and certificate Control Wood (CW). According to the requirements of CW, 70% of the raw materials are supplied to the plant from controlled sources – from the company’s suppliers, the activity is additionally checked. It is not always easy to control your contractors, but companies are adapting to new working conditions. After the company receives the certificate, it gets into the current open database, which is updated every two weeks. And any company can go in search of a certified supplier, or check whether the company has a certificate.

The forest stewardship Council conducted a survey among its participants to find out what factors may have an impact on certification. It turned out that the main reason why Russian companies or companies operating in the Russian market decided to integrate into the certification system is the desire to work for export: 23% of holders of certificates for export sell almost all their products. If we talk about our domestic market, 40% of certificate holders said that more than half of their products are sold in Russia.
The company “IKEA”, as one of the largest DIY, interested in that responsible forest management has become the norm. And by August 2020, at least 100% of the wood that the company uses in production was certified according to the FSC scheme. By 2023, Leroy Merlin plans to use all products from responsible sources.

For reference:
This year, in July, the UN held a policy forum, which invited certificate holders to discuss the relevance and benefits of FSC certification (from English. Forest Stewardship council-forest stewardship Council). Many Western countries support certificate holders and ensure that the FSC is provided by bidders in public procurement tenders. And international companies make their own decisions and work with suppliers who can provide the FSC certificate. The world wide Fund for Nature (WWF) of Russia together with the FSC center is actively negotiating with the Moscow government on the inclusion in the tender documentation of public procurement of certification requirements, including the FSC. Perhaps in the near future and we have a requirement for the presence of the FSC certificate from the company will be mandatory.

Ekaterina Matyushenkova

[1] Do it yourself – “do it yourself”, for example, stores that sell materials for construction or repair.