What is FSC® Forest Certification?
FSC Forest certification is a system which can be used to independently assess forest management practices against predetermined principles and criteria to provide consumers with confidence that timber products have been sourced from sustainably managed forests.
Why Certify Forests?
The principles and criteria used in forest certification seek to balance environmental, social and economic values and benefits of forests. Environmental criteria recognise that forest management should:
- Conserve biological diversity and its values, water resources, soils, unique and fragile ecosystems and landscapes;
- Maintain ecological function and integrity of forests; and
- Protect threatened and endangered species and their habitats.
Principles and criteria of forest certification aim to ensure that human rights are respected.
Economic criteria state that forest managers should seek to achieve an optimal use and local processing of the forest's diversity of products, minimise waste in harvesting and on-site processing, and strive to strengthen and diversify the local economy, avoiding dependence on a single forest product. The rate of harvest shall not exceed levels which cannot be permanently sustained.
What FSC® Means to our Customers
Bunbury Fibre Exports (BFE) is proud to have been made a certificate holder of the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®). The FSC is a non-profit organisation devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world's forests. The FSC has developed an international standard for forest management certification, consisting of ten "Principles and Criteria for Forest Management". These concern the environmental, social and economic impacts of forest management.
Whilst our customers already select forest products based on species and grade, they can now identify products that provide an assurance of social and environmental responsibility on the part of the producer. To do this, the FSC system requires that material be tracked from the certified source through the "chain of custody" (COC). This aspect of the system is the basis for a credible certification system and is the link between consumer preference and responsible, on the ground performance. Certification under the FSC banner allows BFE to guarantee that the COC certification process has been carried out and like any inventory control system COC allows products to be segregated and identified as having come from a particular source, in the case of BFE an FSC Certified Plantation (FSC 100%) or Controlled Wood source.
Tree planting and plantations are a central part of many forest management systems around the world and the FSC believes that plantation managers have an important role to play in the conservation of biodiversity, water and soils at the local level and that plantations can contribute social and economic benefits to local communities.
The FSC promotes forest management that is environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable. Organisations such as Greenpeace, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund all support and encourage FSC certification.
BFE registration certificates may be viewed by clicking on the following attachments:
