Major stakeholder groups need to take part in the national certification standards process to improve the credibility of forest certification, UPM has concluded after conducting field tests on different schemes.
UPM field testing of five certification standards – the Finnish Forest Certification System, the Finnish draft Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard, Swedish FSC, North American Sustainable Forestry Initiative and UK Woodland Assurance Standard – found a balanced approach between them but differences in their emphasis on promoting the economic, social and environmental management of forests.
The research found a lack of substantive industry participation in the draft FSC Finnish standard has led to a greater focus on environmental and social issues, while a lack of NGO support in developing FFCS has had the opposite effect.
Independent assessor Det Norske Veritas discovered difficulties in interpreting requirements in some of the standards, especially FSC Maritimes (Canada) and the draft FSC Finland.
UPM, whose average compliance with the five standards was rated as 84%, says it is willing to promote the participation of major stakeholder groups in the national standards process in order to grow the level of credibly certified fibre on the market.
Duncan Pollard of field test external observer WWF International, said: “This has been an important study, which for the first time goes beyond a desk exercise of certification systems. The test shows clear differences between the schemes and standards at the forest level and has provided understanding about these differences.”
