07 Apr 2006 - Beijing, China
– The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an independent,
non-government organization aimed at promoting
responsible forest management, has launched an
initiative in China that marks the first formal
steps toward the development of a forest certification
scheme within the country.
China is a major player in the
global forest products market, both as a producer
and consumer. Its market for industrial timber,
pulp, and paper is the second largest in the world,
outranked only by the United States. It has relatively
limited forest resources and a great potential
for increases in consumption of wood and paper
products.
Given China’s massive role in
the world’s timber market, the FSC initiative
in China is a critical strategy for mitigating
the destructive environmental impacts of poor
forest management on a worldwide scale. In addition,
China is increasingly exporting wood in value-added
products so a growing share of its wood imports
represents the ecological footprint of end-consumers
in other countries.
“We are very pleased to see
that the FSC China National Initiative has launched
as a result of full cooperation among multi-stakeholders
and that an independent, fair and open consultation
process will lead to an FSC-recognized China Forest
Certification Standard in the near future,” said
Dermot O’Gorman, WWF China’s country representative.
In 2003, WWF China and the Chinese
Academy of Forestry (CAF) paved the way for the
FSC China initiative by co-initiating the FSC
China working group. The working group consisted
of 107 representatives from a broad spectrum of
society, including government, academia, forest
management units, timber processing enterprises,
social groups and other NGOs.
“The working group’s members
represent a truly multi-stakeholder effort,” added
O’Gorman. “Their objectives are to enhance the
development of forest certification in China,
create synergies between the regional forest certification
systems and the international system, and encourage
public involvement in the process of forest certification
through seminars, trainings and publications.”
Recently, the group elected
an 18-person FSC China Working Group Council that
will lead to the development of China’s certification
standards and recognized internationally by FSC.
Founded in 1993, FSC’s mission
is to promote environmentally appropriate, socially
beneficial, and economically viable management
of the world’s forests. Introduced as a tool to
motivate enterprises to produce and market products
from sustainably managed forest, forest certification
can not only establish standards for forest practices
and management, but also educate both producers
and consumers and enhance their participation
in environmental protection.
WWF has worked with the Heilongjiang
provincial government to foster responsible forestry
through promoting forest certification. Besides
capacity building and field research, WWF has
provided technical and financial support to the
Youhao Forestry Bureau in the province. In January
2005, the Bureau, with a total forest area of
24,000ha, became China’s first state-owned forest
to be certified under the Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC) scheme.
“By stepping up its efforts
in China, the FSC stands to play an important
role in improving how forests are managed not
only in China, but across the globe,” said O’Gorman.
