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October 27, 1998, at 9 a.m. FINNISH ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANISATIONS DO NOT SUPPORT THE CERTIFICATION INITIATIVE PROMOTED BY FOREST INDUSTRY AND PRIVATE FOREST OWNERS - THE LEVEL OF STANDARDS IN THE FINNISH SELF-CERTIFICATION INITIATIVE INADEQUATE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL NGOs The forest certification initiative developed by the Finnish forest industry and MTK (The Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners) being presented tomorrow in Helsinki fails to satisfy the most significant environmental organisations in Finland. The primary goal of environmental NGOs is to develop a certification system which significantly improves the conservation of biodiversity in managed forests. Several Finnish environmental NGOs together with numerous other European organisations have signed a declaration, in which the characteristics of a credible certification system are listed. The declaration states that so far FSC is the only certification system to meet these demands. There are some 700 endangered forest-dwelling species in Finland. Forest protection alone is not enough to save these species: changes need to take place also in the management of commercial forests. To this end Finnish NGOs find the following points of particular importance in forest certification: * that old-growth forests and other key habitats remain unlogged also in managed forest areas * that the area of forests permanently left unlogged is increased * that the amount of deciduous trees in managed forests is increased * that the number of individual trees retained in both thinnings and final fellings is increased Finnish environmental NGOs hope that it would still be possible to develop a national FSC standard in Finland. The developement of a national FSC standard requires that there be a working group consisting of people from various environmental, social and economic intrest groups supporting FSC. The task of such a working group is to develop a standard according to the principles of FSC. The standard should also be in compliance with FSC standards approved in neighbouring countries with similar circumstances. Numerous organisations in Europe give their support to FSC Numerous European NGOs have signed a declaration on the requirements of a credible forest certification system. In this declaration, signed also by many Finnish NGOs, it is stated that a forest certificate should comprise two components: forest auditing, which makes sure that the loggings and > other management activities comply with the specific certification standards and product certification with a chain-of-custody monitoring of a timber product from the forest to the customer, which makes possible product labelling. In addition a credible certification system has to fulfil e.g. the following basic requirements: * to improve forest management and ensure market access for certified wood products * to provide a standard with internationally applicable and comparable as well as objective and measurable criteria. * the system should be acceptable to a large range of involved parties and be credible to both consumers and NGOs. While it is recognised that a range of initiatives can make positive contibutions towards more sustainable forest management, the undersigned organisations consider FSC to currently offer the only framework to meet the basic requirements of a good certification system. For more information, please contact:
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