Forest certification proves the level of forest management

The purpose of certifying sustainable forest management is to improve the standard of forest management and to prove this standard to the buyer of timber products. Certification is based, on the one hand, on a public standard which describes the principles of forest management required, and, on the other hand, on an independent assessment as to whether the standard has been complied with. In a positive case the timber product or its packaging will carry a certification label, which tells the buyer that the timber used in the product is derived from a forest whose management complies with the standard. Thus, the label allows the buyer to conclude that the timber used in the product is derived from a forest managed according to the principles of the awarding certification system. This, however, also requires that the timber-processing companies have certified systems and can thus prove that the timber used in manufacturing the labelled product really did grow in a forest managed according to the certification standards. Forest certification requires that the chain of custody is also certified.

Most timber sales in Finland concern standing trees, which means that the buyer – mostly a forestry company –assumes responsibility for the felling. The felling is undertaken by specialised harvesting entrepreneurs, acting as sub-contractors to forest industry. Consequently, where the forest is certified, these enterprises also comply with the certification conditions. In addition to forest management certification, the harvesting enterprises are subject to the environmental and quality systems of the forestry company.

The management of some 95 percent of Finnish forestry land outside protected areas is certified according to the standards of the Finnish Forest Certification System (FFCS). The purpose of this system is to prove that forest management governed by it is sustainable. It requires an unambiguous minimum level, of forest management, which is higher than that stipulated by other forest management regulations. The FFCS Certificate has been approved by the international PEFC organisation, and thus has the right to use a product label informing of PEFC forest certification.

A second forest certification system is managed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). In Finland, one forest holding and about 95 hectares of forest have been certified under this system.

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