“Forests Matter” – The Why and What of PEFC for Companies

Private forest owners in Latvia have reason to celebrate as the private forest association MA Krāslava becomes the first in the country to achieve PEFC sustainable forest management certification through PEFC Group Certification. Thanks to this, 23 individual forest owners have been able to certify their forests – together covering 417 hectares. “We are extremely happy that the first forest owners have begun to benefit from the possibilities offered by PEFC Group Certification,” said Martins Ailts, Board member of PEFC Latvia. “PEFC certification enables them to demonstrate sustainable forest management, gives them access to the certified timber market, and provides them with the possibility to attract some support from the government,” Mr. Ailts continued.

“The forest sector has long supported and participated in efforts to enhance caribou recovery and protection – working alongside partners to advance meaningful solutions, including actively supporting the Government of BC’s Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan and participating in population augmentation trials. We will continue to work to enhance caribou habitat populations and believe the Section 11 Agreement delegation to the Province provides us with a greater range of tools to do this important work. However, we are deeply disappointed that the separate Partnership Agreement signed today permanently removes a significant amount of fibre from the timber harvesting land base and creates additional operational uncertainty. This permanent removal further shrinks the working forest and will have negative impacts on forestry workers, communities and regional economies.

In an effort for transparency, FSC certified Forest Managers have created a high-resolution map showing the location and borders of the forests they harvest. This is timely in a context of a broader discussion to develop spatial data, at FSC but also in the forestry sector in general. The map has come a long way. It was created according to a request from different environmental organisations, community associations, individuals and companies. As per the FSC Principles and Criteria, any stakeholder must be able to contact Forest Management companies to share any supported concerns if they think companies are not managing the land in a responsible way. Forest Managers came together to discuss the matter and agreed to provide relevant data on a voluntary base in order to create the map. Although not all companies have shared their data, we hope they will be encouraged to follow the same path. Click Read More below for additional detail.