Buyer's Corner
What buyers need to know
There are over 50 voluntary forestry standards world-wide, and several in use in North America. Why so many when one standard would certainly make things a lot easier for all parties involved? Although nice in concept, it is unlikely that one standard could ever speak to the diversity of forest types and ecosystems across North America, to the diversity of tenure systems, to public ownership, to private ownership, to the different needs and operating systems within a business, including their varied sources of wood supply, or to the different needs and priorities of the users of wood products. While one standard could run the risk of not speaking to the forest management realities of many operations, many standards will likely result in more widespread application, and in the end, more improvements in forest management.
The good news is that there are initiatives to help buyers and consumers cope with the diversity of standards. After all, to be useful to buyers and consumers, certification must remain a credible tool for communicating sustainable practices. ThatŐs why CanadaŐs forest industry actively supports the international mutual recognition initiative seeking to develop an equivalency mechanism between credible certification standards. The Canadian industry is not alone. Mutual recognition is supported by a large cross section of forestland owners, forest products companies, environmental organizations, labour and other stakeholders, as well as many governments and intergovernmental agencies around the world.
The intent of mutual recognition is to provide a critical mass of credibly certified wood products by recognising that different certification systems can provide substantively equivalent standards of sustainable forest management. Mutual recognition would set a high threshold for entry for participating standards, while enabling the use of standards that accommodate local and regional circumstances. By providing a process to differentiate credible from non-credible certification standards, mutual recognition would use market forces to provide a range of certification standards that will assure customers that their wood product purchases contribute to sustainable forest management.
The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC)
The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC) already has a functioning mutual recognition program in place. PEFC was established to recognize standards based on key credibility criteria which in turn are founded on criteria recognized by intergovernmental processes for SFM. PEFC continues to grow and is now the dominant forest certification recognition scheme in the world. For further information on the PEFC click here.
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