FSC footprints - FSC - Forest Stewardship Council

FSC footprints 

Forest Stewardship Council 

Arbeitsgruppe Deutschland e.V. 

Impacts of FSC certification in tropical regions

Uwe Sayer 

Executive Director 

FSC Working Group 

Germany 

Erika Müller, 

Public Relations & 

Project Monitoring, 

FSC Working Group 

Germany 

Endnotes related 

1, 2 

to boxes 

Dear reader, 

this booklet will take you on a trip to tropical forests 

and highlight the existing challenges and solutions 

for these important ecosystems. Our travel 

route starts in protected areas in Guatemala. It continues 

with the processing and marketing of tropical 

timber to the point of construction of electric guitars 

from responsibly grown wood. 

We all know about the significance of tropical forests. 

Besides an enormous richness in species and 

an important contribution to a stable global climate, 

tropical forests provide a livelihood to many people. 

Knowing that studies about the direct, on the 

ground impacts of FSC certification in the forest 

are scarce, we collected several examples of how 

an ecologically compatible utilization of tropical 

forests can be realised and how FSC certification 

can contribute to that. It was important for us that 

stakeholders from these countries have their say 

and report on their experiences on the ground. The 

examples in this booklet were chosen at random 

and, of course, they only represent snapshots of 

the manifold FSC impacts. 

The booklet aims to demonstrate the positive impacts 

which the FSC system already has on forestry 

and society in tropical regions. At the same 

time, the importance of the manufacturing-trade-relationship 

should be clarified. Everyone who trades 

Tropical Forests in numbers 

3 Tropical Forests worldwide (area): 1,4 Billion ha. 

3 Estimated share of species existing worldwide, 

dwelling in tropical forests: around 70 %. 

3 Estimated number of flora and wildlife species 

in tropical rainforests: 30 Millions. 

3 Number of tropical species becoming extinct every 

hour: at least 3. 

3 Size of tropical forest area, deforested every minute: 

30 pitches. 

3 Annual deforestation rate in Indonesia: 

1,8 Million ha. 

3 Share of illegally logged timber in Indonesia: 73%. 

3 Contribution of tropical forests to the global oxygen 

production: 40%. 

3 Amount of carbon, stored in the Amazonian 

rainforest: 120 Billion tons. 

3 Contribution of tropical forests destruction to 

worldwide CO2-Emissions: 20%. 

with or buys tropical wood products directly affects 

the livelihood of future generations when buying 

products with or without a proof for responsible forest 

management. 

We would like to encourage policy-makers and 

wood traders to reconsider their current business 

practices: Support responsible forest management 

by fostering forest certification – via demand, consumption, 

information or training. We think, in this 

way, forestry practices can be changed on a worldwide 

scale. 

One of the challenges we faced while preparing 

this brochure was the international communication 

including various barriers: most of the writers 

speak different languages and live in different cultures, 

some of them work with FSC on voluntary 

basis. Some of them have only very limited technical 

equipment and do not have regular access to 

emails. Therefore it was and is a challenge to get 

background information on responsible forest management 

in areas abroad in many tropical regions. 

We contacted and received some contributions 

from Africa, Papua New Guinea and the Amazon 

Region. We hope you will enjoy these articles in the 

same way we did. But please note that the article 

content reflects the opinion of the author and not 

necessarily that of FSC Working Group Germany. 

Reasons for deforestation in the tropics 

The underlying causes for deforestation are very complex 

and differ from region to region. 

Global economic interdependencies (resource allocation, 

economic interests, debts), necessities of the 

population caused by poverty, population growth and 

the specific ecological preconditions in tropical regions 

can be viewed as the most influential reasons. 

Thus 90% of deforestation in the tropical rainforests can 

be traced back to the increase of agricultural activities, 

whereas shifting cultivation and pasture farming are 

equivalently important. With regional differences 2-10% 

of deforestation activities are directly linked to the 

timber industry, in Asia e.g. it has a part of 30%. But in 

this context the after-effects of forest development, the 

so-called “door-opener-effect” should not be underestimated. 

Another 1-2% of forest destruction are a result of 

major projects such as mining, roadworks or dams. 

| footprints FSCTrademark © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C. (FSC-SECR-0012)

Contents 

3 FSC means changes - Preface by Roberto Waack ........................................4 

3 FSC means conservation - Preface by Eric Palola .........................................5 

3 Tropical forests - Biodiversity Hotspots ..........................................................6 

3 The Forest Stewardship Council - What is it all about? ..................................7 

3 FSC Certified Forestry - A Crash Course ........................................................8 

3 Changes on the ground - Impacts of FSC in forests ......................................9 

3 Help for the rainforests - FSC stops the burning off .....................................10 

3 Illegal tropical timber - A problem on European markets .............................1 

3 Abdul and the teak furniture - A story from Sulawesi ....................................13 

3 Trailblazer for Sustainability - The Roda Group in Bolivia ............................15 

3 Think globally, act locally - FSC helps to reduce poverty .............................16 

3 Cooperate growth through environmental 

and social compliance ..................................................................................17 

3 Sustainable Forest Management in the Congo Basin ..................................18 

3 Changing climate - Effects on the FSC .........................................................19 

3 The jaguars lounge - FSC in Bolivia ............................................................. 1 

3 Hope for people and forests - FSC and forestry in Papua New Guinea ....... 

3 The Lomie Community Forest in the eastern province of Cameroon ... .......24 

3 Lesser Known Species - A largely untapped potential .................................. 5 

3 Surprising facts about responsible forest management ................................ 6 

3 Ruben and the guitar - FSC certified musical instruments ...........................27 

3 Hindered by governance - A Scenery in the Brazilian Amazon .....................28 

3 The Brazilian Amazon - Challenges for FSC ................................................ 9 

3 FSC and the brazil nuts - Certified cosmetics ...............................................31 

3 Eucalyptus plantations - More than just cash crops? ...................................32 

3 Plantation certification - Credibility and market demand ..............................34 

3 Development through participation - 

The multistakeholder approach of the FSC ..................................................35 

3 Unique Wood - Help against deforestation in Paraguay ...............................36 

3 Conclusions - Does FSC fulfil its promises? .................................................38 

3 Acknowledgements, References and Networks ...........................................39 



Impacts of FSC certification in tropical regions footprints | 3

Roberto Waack, 

Chairman Member 

of the FSC Board of 

Directors. Director of 

Orsa Florestal, Brazil. 

Picture: 

© Juan Carlos 

Reyes/ FSC 

FSC means changes 

Preface by Roberto Waack 

Sustainable management of tropical forests is one 

of the most powerful alternatives to the consolidation 

of the tropical forests economy. The Forest 

Stewardship Council has been the certification 

scheme of choice in many countries of the South, 

including Brazil. FSC has succeeded for a wide 

range of reasons, the most talked about being premium 

price. FSC tropical timber can be sold in the 

North of Europe at higher prices varying from 10 

to 30% above non-certified products. This reality 

exists despite the lack of awareness and desire of 

the consumer to pay more for a product that has 

guaranteed social and environmental safeguards. 

How is that possible? The answer lies in the knowledge 

of what occurs in the chain of custody that forestry 

products undergo until they become furniture, 

doors, window frames or floors. For many reasons, 

the demand for FSC certified tropical timber is larger 

than the supply, regardless of the low association 

with the final consumer’s decision. The explanation 

lies not only in supply and demand issues. It also 

comes from the ideas of new institutional economics 

and its relation to transaction costs. 

Besides premium prices, FSC tropical forest products 

are unique. In many cases they are the only 

way to access certain markets. An example is 

public procurement in certain European countries 

and even in some states of Brazil, as recently announced 

by the State of São Paulo. Also, many timber 

industries and retailers committed themselves 

(for different reasons) to buy only FSC certified 

tropical wood. 

FSC products present lower risk to the buyer and 

the financial community, because in general FSC 

certified companies are managed in a better way. 

FSC principles, criteria, policies, standards, and 

indicators are good managerial tools for organizations. 

FSC products have lower reputation risk, a 

crucial element in the tropical timber market. The 

multi-stakeholder approach also reduces conflicts, 

which are a serious threat in the tropics. All those 

issues can be translated to a reduction of transaction 

costs, helping to explain why the demand for 

alternative operators following FSC principles has 

increased. 

One of the major problems of tropical regions is a 

weak institutional apparatus. The legal framework 

is fragile, frequently lacking law enforcement. Land 

use and ownership are not clearly defined, causing 

all kinds of conflicts and misuse of the forest. 

FSC principles mandate that all property and land 

use rights be clearly defined to the satisfaction of 

all stakeholders before certification, which forces 

managers to settle disputes fairly. This commitment 

to clear and legal ownership has far reaching implications: 

Brazil recently passed a law that addresses 

public concessions of forests that incorporates 

many aspects of the FSC principles. 

In conclusion, FSC represents the success of the 

multi-stakeholder process in many ways. Instead of 

governments setting laws and rules, social, environmental 

and economic constituencies all over the 

world are increasingly playing a role in the establishment 

of frameworks that are later incorporated 

by governments. As a result, a paradigm shift in institutional 

development occurs. In the Amazon tropical 

forests, there is no doubt about that. Regardless 

of the frequent horror stories about forest conversion 

in tropical countries, there are reasons to be 

optimistic. FSC certification of forest management 

is one of the most consistent and effective alternatives 

to traditional forest management in the tropics, 

and will hopefully extend its influence in years 

to come. 

4 | footprints FSCTrademark © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C. (FSC-SECR-0012)

FSC means conservation 

Preface by Eric Palola 

In the last twenty years the world has shrunk economically, 

and the potential for disruptive climate 

change is now taken seriously. Producer and consumer 

countries have become more dependent in 

the global marketplace, and this relationship is a 

driving force in the use of natural resources and 

the future of biodiversity. Trade in wood and paper 

products in particular has become truly global. 

Through efforts such as the Forest Stewardship 

Council (FSC), Fair Trade, and other certification 

systems, these markets have grown to recognize 

and accept the need for social and environmental 

safeguards in trade. Product labeling has become 

more sophisticated as it attempts to secure brand 

recognition and convey a positive environmental 

story. For forests, and the multiple products and 

ecological services they provide, FSC has played a 

critical role in transforming expectations about how 

forest management is practiced and rewarded in 

the marketplace. 

Now the realities of global climate change force us 

to once again expand our view of the role of forests 

and managed forest landscapes. For many tropical 

forest countries, we know that the loss of forests to 

agriculture and other uses constitutes their primary 

source of greenhouse gas emissions. Cumulatively 



these add up to sizeable contributions: over a fifth 

of total global greenhouse gas emissions. If we are 

to achieve at a least a 2% per year reduction in 

emissions by 2050, as many scientists have called 

for, then conservation of forest carbon stocks and 

additional sequestration through sound forest management 

will be an essential part of the solution. 

However, given community needs and traditions in 

many tropical forest regions, we know that simply 

drawing a line around forest regions to preserve 

them for carbon sinks or biological reserves is not 

workable in every case. Therefore, systems which 

can balance the needs of people and forests in ways 

that reinforce sustainability, community livelihoods, 

biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration 

are needed. This is where the FSC can play a role, 

as it has for almost fifteen years. Verification of forest 

carbon conservation will be needed at many different 

scales in the coming years, from the country 

to the community level. This paper demonstrates 

the important role that FSC has played - and can 

continue to play - as the imperatives of climate 

change call for even greater and “greener” investments 

in well managed forests across the tropics. 

Eric Palola, 

Vice-Chairman 

of the FSC Board 

of Directors, Senior 

Director, Forests for 

Wildlife, National 

Wildlife Federation, 

Impacts of FSC certification in tropical regions footprints | 5 

USA 

Pictures: 

© Edward Parker / 

Tropical Forest Trust

Tropical forests - 

Biodiversity hotspots 

Tropical forests are particularly rich in biodiversity. They 

are like a green belt covering the all-season warm and 

humid tropical equatorial landmasses. More than half of 

the world´s terrestrial species can be found in tropical 

rainforests. On average about 1500 different, flowering 

plant, 750 tree species (by comparison in Europe we 

have only 50 tree species), 400 bird, 150 butterfly, 100 

reptile and 420.000 insect species can be determined on 

six 3) km . 

Besides being a biodiversity hotspot forests also fulfil 

a range of ecological, economical and social functions. 

Forests warrant environmental functions such as 

water and soil conservation, water supply and climate 

regulation. 

About 60 million indigenous people live in or are heavily 

dependent on rainforests of Latin America, South East 

Asia & West Africa. Another 350 million people live in, 

or close by, dense forests and are reliant on them for 

subsistence or income. A further 1, 2 billion people in 

developing countries rely on trees on form for their food 

or income 4) . Thus the destruction and exploitation of 

FSC-certified wood for Rock’n’Roll! 

Built in Nashville, grown in 

Honduras – Gibson uses 

FSC-certified wood for guitars 

The musical instrument company Gibson 

is one of the pioneers in the production 

of electric guitars, such as the legendary 

Les Paul, which is one of the favoured 

instruments of well-known artists like 

Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Slash etc. 

Gibson was not only at the cutting-edge 

in this respect, but has also been the first 

musical instrument company to produce 

guitars with FSC-certified wood. Since 

1996 Gibson has supported the FSC and 

cooperated with the Rainforest Alliance 

as well as supporting environmental 

and social projects in poverty-stricken 

regions, e.g. in Honduras. One aim of 

tropical forests through illegal logging activities not only 

threatens the existence of many fauna and flora species, 

but also the diversity of cultures and livelihoods of people, 

resulting in poverty and thus in the deprivation of 

quality of life 5) 6) . 

This makes the protection of tropical forests the prime 

challenge when talking about biodiversity conservation. 

Globally, around 12% of all forest areas certified to FSC 

standards lie within the tropics or the subtropics. About 

60% of these are natural forests. 12% of FSC certification 

in tropical forests might appear a small percentage. This 

is partly due to the major changes that need to be implemented 

in many forest operations in the tropics, before 

they can comply with FSC requirements. Also, among all 

forest certification schemes FSC certifies by far the most 

forests in the tropics. The FSC Global Strategy (2007) 

recognizes the need to develop further tools and mechanisms 

to increase FSC certification in the tropics. Other 

FSC certified forest areas are about equally divided between 

the temperate and the boreal regions. 

Gibson CEO and 

Chairman Henry 

Juszkiewicz is to 

increase the share of certified wood 

bought by Gibson USA from 42% in 2006 

to 80%. 

In Honduras the Rainforest Alliance 

applies the so-called TREES-pro- 

gram (Training, Research, Extension, 

Education and Systems) to initiate 

incentives for sustainable logging 

practices and at the same time ensuring 

financial income for the local inhabitants. 

Gibson pays nearly four times the going 

rate for FSC-certified wood, especially 

for mahogany, which they use for the 

Les Paul. Workers in the sawmills are 

specifically trained to apply to Gibson´s 

specifications and to maximize the yield 

from every mahogany tree. Because of 

enormous market demands and illegal 

logging in the last years, the harvest 

and trade of mahogany has been rigor- 

ously constricted by the decision of the 

Convention on International Trade in 

Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and 

Flora (CITES). Nevertheless traders and 

producers of high class furniture are 

willing to pay high prices on the world 

markets, leading to continuation of lucra- 

tive illegal mahogany trade. 

The case of Honduras is a successful 

win-win situation: By contributing to pov- 

erty reduction and social development, 

Gibson can rely on exclusive and high- 

class raw materials for their instruments 

and strengthen coevally sustainable 

resource utilisation. 


The Forest Stewardship Council 

What is it all about? 

The mission of FSC is to promote environmentally responsible, 

socially beneficial and economically viable 

management of the world’s forests. It roots stem back to 

the World Environmental Summit in Rio 1993. 

Everyone’s viewpoint is important 

The FSC is organised in the form of a non-governmental, 

non-profit membership organization, 

operating on global level. Currently 

FSC has National Initiatives in more 

than 46 countries around the world. 3 

More than 114 million ha forest are 3 

certified in 79 countries and more 3 

than 9100 COC (chain of custody) 3 

certificates have been assigned importance 

(May 2008). The FSC is supported 3 

by environmental organisations, unions, 

indigenous peoples, as well peoples 

as numerous companies from the 

forestry and wood production sectors. 

In order to balance the interests of these different 

stakeholders, FSC is governed by three chambers representing 

environmental, economic and social interests. 

Each of these chambers are additionally divided into 

sub-chambers of northern and southern countries. Each 

chamber has equal voting power, and makes decisions 

cooperatively. This guarantees equal influence of the different 

interest groups as well as for representatives from 

different parts of the world and economic powers. 

FSC and forest management 

FSC system clearly describes how forests shall be managed 

to meet social, economic, ecological, cultural and 

spiritual needs of present and future generations. 10 

principles and 56 criteria have been developed to form 

the basis for all FSC forest management standards 

worldwide. They include managerial aspects as well as 

environmental and social requirements. FSC-standards 

comprise the strictest social and environmental requirements 

in the business today. 

The FSC standards setting process is transparent, democratic 

and inclusive, with many opportunities for the interested 

public to participate. For example, stakeholders 

are invited to comment on the revised standards, and 

all certification documents are publicly available. It is 

through this process that FSC has become an important 

and recognized forum where innovative solutions are 

born, originating from all interested stakeholder groups. 

High Conservation Value Forests 

Forests with high biodiversity values 

Large intact natural forest areas 

Rare or threatened ecosystems 

Forests with critical ecosystem 

Forest areas of particular importance 

to local communities and indigenous 



FSC is the only certification system in forestry recognized 

by ISEAL to follow best-practice in standard setting. 

Credibility by transparency 

The complexity of forestry on the ground in different 

ecological regions makes it sometimes difficult to compare 

under which circumstances a forester has gained 

its FSC-certificate. To make certification 

decisions accessible and 

transparent for everyone FSC 

requires that reports of FSC-certification 

are publicly available. 

With these reports everyone can 

analyze on his own, which correction 

have been needed in a forests 

company to fulfil FSC-requirements. 

This and the fact that every 

stakeholder are seriously heard in 

certification-processes, gains credibility 

and support from stakeholders 

and makes FSC a valuable brand on products. 

Taking care of particularities 

FSC certification prioritizes the protection of particularly 

valuable forest ecosystems. This includes both ecological 

and social values. To this end, FSC has developed 

a new concept, called High Conservation Value 

Forest (HCVF). This is defined in principle 9 of FSC’s 

10 Principles. Besides the particular attention given to 

HCVF, FSC certification does also protect biodiversity 

more generally on the whole forest areas managed in 

accordance with FSC requirements. 

Principle 9 requires that forests with high conservation 

values increase or at the very least maintain these 

values. All FSC certified operations must have a forest 

management plan that includes an inventory for high 

conservation values. If such values are found, the management 

plan has to include concrete actions on how 

these values will be maintained and enhanced. The classification 

of HCVFs is highly dependent on the particular 

socio-cultural and ecological context. To strike a balance 

between conservation and use, low-impact management 

procedures must be adopted so as not to degrade, but to 

improve the forest through management. Yearly surveillance 

audits prescribed by the FSC system control its 

effectiveness and implementation. 


3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

Main elements of FSC 

Dialog 

basic process for credible standard 

development. Members and 

Stakeholders express their needs 

and come to conclusions within 

a 3-chamber-approch with fair 

participation of all partners. 

Standards 

sets out the minimal requirements 

for forest management in its 

ecological, economic and 

social dimension, that need to 

be complied with by the forest 

manager and against which 

certification assessments are 

made. 

Certification 

process to determine if a 

standard has been met or not. 

Independent auditors (certifiers 

verify compliance with standards 

annually). 

Accreditation – 

“certification of certifiers” 

Mechanism to check and ensure 

that certification bodies are 

qualified and trustworthy. 

Chain of Custody – 

or product supply chain 

Verification through the supply 

chain guarantees that a particular 

product comes from a well- 

managed forest. 

Controlled Wood 

controls the non-certified timber 

content in FSC certified products 

beyond legal requirements, which 

enable manufacturers and traders 

to avoid unacceptable timber and 

timber products. 

Labelling rules 

specify the conditions under which 

labels can be used by a certified 

forest owner or company. The 

forest owner cannot mark the 

wood with the FSC-Logo and 

promote it accordingly unless they 

have passed their audit. The Logo 

as well as the name “FSC” are 

registered trademarks. 

FSC certified forestry 

A crash course 

Understanding FSC certified forest management 

requires basic understanding of why it is 

not just the managing of resources. 

Sustainable forest management means managing 

a living organism with the intention of 

promoting growth and prosperity at all levels 

of the ecosystem and society. Here are the 

basics: 

FOREST INVENTORY 

Detailed registration of tree species, quality, 

distribution and volume (to judge how much 

of the resource can be harvested of each 

species). 

MAPPING 

Biological values, cultural values, watersheds 

and streams etc. (to know the specific location 

of what must be protected when planning 

the harvest). 

SELECTIVE HARVESTING 

Harvesting only a limited percentage of each 

species (to ensure natural regeneration of the 

whole species composition). 

SITE ADAPTED MANAGEMENT 

Using and promoting species and silvicultural 

systems based on the actual site (working 

with nature and not against nature). 

OPTIMIZING BY UTILIZATION 

Harvesting a lower volume of greater variety 

of species and products. (to avoid exploitation 

of the most commercial species and to ensure 

the balance of the ecosystem). 

REDUCED IMPACT LOGGING 

Felling direction, removing lianas, using the 

right equipment and skilled workers (to protect 

the harvest and standing trees from avoidable 

damage). 

REDUCED IMPACT EXTRACTION 

Planning a grid of tracks or using the right 

technology. (to make sure that the entire harvest 

is extracted and to minimize damages to 

the forest floors, hydrology, etc.). 

ROTATION 

Dividing the forest area into operating zones 

and rotating (up to 25 years) before returning 

(concentrating operations and thereby reducing 

costs and keeping impact on wildlife low). 

MONITORING 

Identifying indicators of the level of impact 

and monitoring them (to observe, measure 

and document that the operation is actually 

sustainable). 

CONSERVATION ZONES 

Designating certain parts (about 5%) to be left 

intact forever (to protect the most vulnerable 

and biologically valuable parts of the forest) 

RESERVES 

Protecting High Conservation Value Forests 

(HCVF). Certain areas are so unique they 

must be protected entirely from any activity. 

BUFFER ZONES 

Between operation areas and areas of high 

conservation value (for example to protect 

streams and rivers). 

SOCIAL ASPECTS 

Providing proper education, safety equipment, 

respecting the rights of the labour force. (to 

improve practical forest operations and ensure 

the future of the forest industry). 

LOCAL CONSIDERATIONS 

Access to the forest, its beauty and resources, 

respecting neighbours (to ensure the people 

who live in and around the forest value it and 

take part in the protection of it). 

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE 

Protecting their livelihood, culture, respecting 

their inherited rights (to protect the few groups 

of people and minorities who still have an intact 

bloodline in the forest). 

It is a question of best practice 

8 | FSCTrademark © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C. (FSC-SECR-0012)

Changes on the ground 

Impacts of FSC in forests 

A Rainforest Alliance study conducted in 2005 

proves that FSC certification has a positive impact 

on worldwide forest management practices. The 

study examined Corrective Action Requests (CAR) 

of 129 certified operations in 21 countries 7) . CARs 

are conditions laid out by the certifying body that 

must be met in a certain period of time to validate 

certification. FSC-certification requires clear changes 

in certified forests once issues are addressed as 

a CAR. 

In the study certified forests were examined in 

South America, Central America and Mexico, Asia, 

New Zealand and Australia, USA and Canada and 

Europe. To get a better understanding for different 

conditions in these areas, the results were split into 

developed and developing countries. 

The results of the study (see graph below) show 

that FSC-certification leads to improvements in 

planning and monitoring in most FSC-certified for- 

Percentage of Rainforest 

Alliance certified forestry 

operations required to 

make changes during 

the certification process, 

shown for the ten issues 

most frequently requiring 

change. Comparison of 

less and more developed 

countries. Adapted from: 

Rainforest Alliance, 2005. 

ests. The impact on social aspects is much higher 

in less developed countries than in more developed 

countries. The most prevalent social impacts 

of FSC-certification were improved communication 

and conflict resolution with stakeholders, neighbours 

and communities, improved worker training 

and improved worker safety. 

Some environmental impacts of certification were 

improved riparian and aquatic management, improved 

treatment of sensitive sites and high conservation 

value forests and improved treatment of 

threatened and endangered species. 

Despite the presumption that sustainable forest 

management practises are more prevalent in more 

developed countries, the study shows clearly that 

in regards to environmental improvements FSC 

has a significant impact in both developed and developing 

countries. 



Deanna Newsom, 

Research Coordinator 

at Yale University 

& TREES Program 

Associate at the 

Rainforest Alliance. 

At TREES she 

conducts research to 

better understand the 

effects of certification 

and to improve 

certification systems. 


Rebecca Butterfield 

Director of 

Evaluation and 

Research coordinates 

Rainforest Alliance 

efforts to quantify the 

impact of FSC and 


certifications as 

well as Rainforest 

Alliance’s work in 

sustainable tourism. 

David Hughell 

Research and 

Geospatial Analyst, 

is a member of 

Rainforest Alliance’s 

Evaluation and 

Research team, 

providing analysis 

of satellite and other 

imagery, managing 

geographic refer- 

enced databases, 

and GPS support to 


programs. 

Help for the rainforests 

FSC stops the burning off 

The Rainforest Alliance conducted a case study in 

the Peten region in Guatemala, to measure the impacts 

of FSC certification on forest conservation in 

the Maya Biosphere Reserve 8) . 

In 1990 the government of Guatemala created the 

Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) with over 2 million 

hectares in northern Petén. The primary motive 

was to combine conservation and sustainable use 

of natural and cultural resources and, in doing so, 

to maximize the ecological, economical and social 

benefits for Guatemala. 

For administrative purposes the MBR is divided 

into three zones with varying degrees of resource 

management: 1) Core protected area (CPA), designated 

for strict protection; 2) Multiple use zone 

(MUZ), designated for managed and sustainable 

low impact agriculture and the extraction of timber 

and non-timber forest resources; and 3) Buffer 

zone (BZ), a 15 km wide zone at the southern limits 

of the MBR where agriculture and land ownership 

are permitted. 

This move was controversial as many environmental 

groups lobbied for complete protected area status 

for the area and expressed concerns about allowing 

extractive activities within the reserve. In response, 

the Consejo Nacional de Areas Protegidas 

(CONAP) required that new forest concessions 

within the MUZ become FSC-certified within three 

years of the initial concession grant. The international 

NGO (Non-Governmental-Organization) 

Rainforest Alliance has been active in the Peten 

and specifically the MBR since 1996. 

First activities of Rainforest Alliance focused on 

training and outreach on FSC certification to nascent 

community groups and local NGOs involved 

in forest management activities. Thus by late 2007, 

Rainforest Alliance had certified 478.,000 hectares 

in the MBR, representing 60% of the multiple use 

zone and 23% of the total land base. 

To better understand the impact of FSC forest certification 

on forest conservation, Rainforest Alliance 

conducted a study where the deforestation rate and 

the occurrence of wildfires on FSC certified concessions 

were examined, and compared to those 

of other zones within the MBR with a different land 

use category. 

Picture: © Juan Carlos Reyes/ FSC 

Improvements 

The following improvements in forest 

concession attributable to FSC certification 

have been identified 9) 

3 Creation of forest fire control and prevention 

plans, including a monitoring and patrol program, 

organization of fire brigades and fire fighting 

strategies, as well as training of personnel and 

purchase of adequate fire suppression equipment 

with support from the Guatemalan National System 

for the Prevention and Control of Forest Fires 

(SIPECIF) 

3 Reduced social conflict due to improved land use 

mapping and boundary definitions 

3 Creation of specialized committees within 

communities to manage fire suppression, forest 

inventory, timber extraction, and boundary patrols 

3 Formalization of rules and procedures governing 

outside collectors of non-timber forest products 

(often a historical source of illegal hunting and 

unintentional wildfires) 

3 Improved relations and collaboration with 

neighbouring communities over road use, 

maintenance and forest fire control 

3 Improvements in living and working conditions 

for forest workers including insurance, increased 

employment of safety equipment and use of labor 

contracts. 


The results showed that FSC certification has 

clearly played a pivotal role in protecting Petén’s 

forest resources and will have an increasingly important 

role in the future in maintaining forest cover 

in the MBR: 

3 

3 

From 2002 to 2007, the average annual 

deforestation rate for the entire MBR and also 

including the core protected areas was twenty 

times higher than the deforestation rate for 

the FSC certified concessions. If current rates 

of deforestation continue, the MBR will loose 

38% of its 1986 forest cover by 2050, with most 

of that loss within the western core protected 

areas and the buffer zone. In the future, the 

FSC certified forest concessions will contribute 

an increasing percentage of the remaining 

forest cover. 

Since 1998 the incidence of wildfires in the 

MBR has been variable (7% to 20% of forest 

area burnt annually), while the area burnt on 

FSC certified concessions has been a fraction 

of that and steadily dropped from 6.5% in 

1998 to 0,1% in 2007. While wildfire presence 

does not necessarily lead to land conversion 

or deforestation, repeated anthropic fires 

reduce forest cover, and significantly reduce 

the integrated economic potential of forest 

management derived from the collection of nontimber 

forest products (NTFP). 

The success of the FSC certified concessions in 

maintaining forest cover is likely due to the sustainable 

management practices required by FSC certification, 

as well as continued donor support and 

the activities of numerous government and nongovernment 

organizations to promote environmental 

awareness, community vigilance programs and 

sustainable economic activities. 

Right: Laguna des Tigre National Park under strict protection – logging is 

prohibited. Slash-and-burn farmers and illegal loggers already destroyed 

about half of the park´s forests. In contrast the FSC certified forest deep 

within the Maya Biosphere Reserve (Left). The Carmelita community 

managing the land harvest less than 2% of the forest a year. This access 

road was created two years ago – it demonstrates low impact logging 

(© Rainforest Alliance/ David Dudenhöfer). 

Strength in numbers 

ACOFOP 

The Association of Forest Communities of 

Petén (ACOFOP) is made up of 22 community 

organizations and aims to support socio-economic 

development and standard of living for 

their members by sustainable management 

of their forest resources. Besides educational 

measures and transfer of professional knowhow, 

ACOFOP successfully established market 

relations and encouraged the trade with nontimber-forest 

products such as medicinal plants, 

fruits and woven products. Since it´s foundation 

in 1995, ACOFOP has driven forward the 

extension of forest certification in the Reserve, 

established a good administrative structure 

and implemented effective tools for fire control 

and illegal logging. More than 14 000 people 

benefited directly from the sustainable forest 

use through education, salary above minimum, 

strong community structures and successful 

marketing of ACOFOP products. 

Picture: © ACOFOP/EED/ Wolfgang Wachenhausen 




Peter Hirschberger 

4con Forest 

Consulting worked 

several years for 

WWF with a focus 

on illegal logging and 

related trade. Other 

areas of expertise 

are forest certifica- 

tion, forests & climate 

change, bio energy, 

forest conservation. 

Illegal tropical timber 

A problem on European markets 

Illegal logging and related trade occurs when timber 

is harvested, transported, processed, bought 

or sold in violation of national or regional laws. 

Although generally portrayed as a problem in tropical 

forests, illegality also occurs in developed countries 

and economies in transition. 

Illegal logging for the demand of international markets 

has a particularly devastating effect on biodiversity. 

The main targets are the remaining highconservation-value 

forests, including protected 

areas, which contain highly valuable hardwood 

species that have been overexploited elsewhere. 

In tropical countries such as Indonesia and Brazil, 

illegal logging initiates the process of degradation 

and deforestation, which causes up to a quarter of 

global greenhouse gas emissions 10) . Improving forest 

governance and law enforcement is therefore 

the key issue in reducing emissions from deforestation 

and degradation. 

Illegal logging costs the global economy an estimated 

US$10-15 billion annually. According a 

report published by the American Forest & Paper 

Association, illegal logging depresses global timber 

prices by 7% to 16% 11) . An analysis of EU foreign 

trade data shows that nearly half of all tropical 

timber products imported in 2006 may come 

from illegal sources. Illegal tropical timber comes 

from West and Central Africa, South East Asia and 

Brazil. Main destinations within the EU are France, 

Spain, the Netherlands and Italy. 

The EU imports round and sawn wood and veneer 

from West and Central Africa. In addition, some EU 

countries import considerable amounts of charcoal 

from Nigeria, the country with the world’s highest 

deforestation rate. Imports from South East Asia 

mainly consist of furniture and other finished and 

semi-finished products, while imports from Brazil 

tend to be tropical sawn wood and plywood as well 

as finished products. 

However, a significant amount of EU imports of 

tropical timber comes from non-tropical countries. 

China’s timber imports have strongly increased 

over the last years, with most of these imports coming 

from countries and regions where illegal logging 

is widespread. Meanwhile, imports of finished tim- 

ber products from China into the EU have almost 

tripled between 2003 and 2006. 

To address illegal logging and related trade, the EU 

adopted the Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, 

Governance and Trade (FLEGT) in 2003. In 2007 

Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia and Cameroon entered 

into formal negotiations of FLEGT partnership 

agreements, while negotiations with a number 

of West and Central African countries will start in 

2008. 

However, these partnership agreements, once implemented, 

will reduce illegal timber imports (tropical 

and non-tropical) into the EU by less than 10 %. 

The lion’s share of EU’s illegal timber imports come 

from countries not yet scheduled for negotiations: 

Brazil, China, Russia and many Eastern European 

countries. In addition, the FLEGT regulation only 

covers a limited range of products – round wood, 

sawn wood, plywood and veneer. For this reason, 

FLEGT can ban just 13 % of EU’s illegal timber imports 

from Indonesia. 

FLEGT may reduce direct imports of timber illegally 

logged in West and Central Africa. However, it may 

only shift the transport of illegal African timber from 

Europe to China, while products made from illegal 

African wood will still enter the European market 

via finished timber products from China. The EU 

commission is currently considering further legislation 

to address these loopholes. To have any real 

impact, additional legislation should cover all products 

made from wood and require that only legally 

harvested timber and timber products be placed on 

the European market 12)-14) . 

Credible forest certification is a tool already working 

to exclude illegal sources in the wood supply. 

Principle 1 of the FSC standard requires “compliance 

with laws, controlled by annual audits.” Chain 

of custody certification covers all types of products 

made from wood throughout the entire production 

process, and the controlled wood standard reduces 

the risk of illegal and other controversial sources in 

products with mixed FSC content. FSC recognizes 

the tremendous problems caused by illegal logging 

and hopes to reduce its prevalence through strict 

standards and monitoring. 


Abdul and the teak furniture 

A story from Sulawesi 

In a crowded office shaded from the stifling midday 

sun the local heads of community organisations sit 

around a long table. There is very little space, they 

sit pressed shoulder to shoulder or stand along 

the walls, while others peer in from the doorway. 

Despite the humidity, the room is a bubble of chatter 

and laughter. There is palpable sense of confidence 

amongst these men and women, a feeling 

of communal strength and unity. One of the group 

bangs his fist on the table and exclaims “Tabang 

satu tanam sepulub (For every tree cut down, we 

plant ten!)” There is a chorus of approval from 

those around him. 

In the rich agricultural land of Konawe Selatan 

district that surrounds the port of Kendari in South 

East Sulawesi there is a remarkable success story 

which could spread to other areas of Indonesia. 

Koperasi Hulan Jaya Lestari (KHJL) is a co-operative 

for managing sustainable teak forests and 

the first co-operative in Indonesia to be awarded 

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for 

the sustainability of the timber they produce. FSC is 

an organisation which sets international standards 

for forest management. Its aims are to promote environmentally 

appropriate, socially beneficial and 

economically viable management of the world´s 

forests. In developing countries, FSC-certified forestry 

has the potential to reduce rural poverty and 

curb illegal logging. In the last decade, organisations 

ranging from giant multinational corporations 

to small local communities, managing in total nearly 

1000 million hectares of forest in 77 countries, 

have been awarded FSC certificates. As of October 

2007, KHJL was the only certified co-operative producer 

of teak in Indonesia. 

“…the benefit of FSC certification is that the people 

are more aware about forest management. They 

receive free teak seeds and they know how to plant 

seedlings. They also understand their needs in the 

co-operative and the benefits they get from it – especially 

the benefits of annual dividend payments. 

The price we get for timber increases because of 

the cooperative; members can now re-build their 

houses, and there is better schooling for their children. 

We can show the government that illegal 

logging can be stopped. By 2015, we hope there 

will be no more poor people in Konawe Selatan…” 

(Abdul Harris Tamburaka, chairman of KHJL) 

Teak is a much sought after tropical hardwood. 

Famous for its durability, it is used for many purposes. 

But teak has one unrivalled quality which 

makes it uniquely different from other species. Due 

to unusually high oil-content, its wood is naturally 

water-repellent; it neither rots nor causes rust when 

in contact with metal, making it the timber of choice 

for the manufacture of outdoor furniture, flooring 

and boat decking. 

In 2003, the local people in Konawe Selatan started 

to plant the logging of their teak plantations, all 

of which are in privatelyowned 

small holdings. A 

total of nearly 200 farmers 

from 46 villages joined the 

cooperative. Together with 

a local NGO, the South 

Sulawesi Forest Network 

Institution (Jaringan Untuk 

Hutan or JAUH), KHJL invited 

FSC to begin certification 

of their plantations 

and, in May 2005, KHJL 

were finally awarded their 

certificate. Before certification 

KHJL members could 

only sell their teak at low 

prices – sometimes less 

than 50% of its true value. 

Now, with increasing im- 



Tim Lewis 

has been director and 

company secretary 

of Handcrafted Films 

Ltd. since 2006. He 

is a writer, photogra- 

pher and film maker. 


portance in international tropical wood and furniture 

markets given to certified evidence of sustainability 

and traceability, the teak sold by Konawe Selatan 

communities commands premiums high enough to 

sustain them economically. 

In previous years, illegal logging had all but decimated 

the forests throughout the region. This deforestation 

was, by and large, the results of vague and 

incoherent forest-use policies and laws – a situation 

exploited by corrupt forestry officials, often supported 

by the police and the military. Logging permits 

were handed out which generally contravened the 

regulations, did little to conserve the forests and 

added to the dubious reputation of Indonesian timber. 

One of the victories which came with KHJL´s 

FSC certification was the empowerment of the local 

community to protect and manage their own forests. 

Now the teak trees that grow in the fields and 

gardens of Konawe Selatan district not only provide 

villagers with a substantial improvement in income; 

they also serve as a model to persuade nearby 

communities to stop illegal logging. 

“... by protecting their environment, the children can 

benefit from the teak. In future, the generation can 

have better living conditions and can pay for their 

education. It won´t be a problem for them…” (Abdul 

Maal, local KHJL member and small furniture enterprise 

owner). 

Abdul Maal is a good example of how KHJL is improving 

the lives of villagers. A member of the coop- 

Tran and the garden furniture 

Tran is 26 yeas old and lives with his family in 

Vietnam. Like so many other Vietnamese men, 

he is supporting his family by himself and so must 

be regularly employed. When people like Tran 

want to work in Vietnam, they often have to accept 

poor working conditions, low wages and unstable 

employment. 

But Tran is one of the lucky Vietnamese people. 

For the past three years, he has worked with FSC 

certified wood at a factory owned by Scancom. 

Here he is producing FSC-labelled garden furniture 

for western markets. And Tran produces 

the many pieces of garden furniture with a clear 

conscience. He knows that the FSC label on the 

wood means that the forests have been taken care 

of and that no more wood is logged than the forest 

itself can reproduce. 

erative since 2003, Abdul has started his own small 

business enterprise. An accomplished and skilful 

carpenter, he uses the off-cuts from the teak plantations 

to build furniture which is then sold locally to 

the inhabitants of Kendari. Trying to reach the front 

door of his house is much like beginning an assault 

course, you have to navigate your way through 

stacked teak doors, chairs, benches, panelling and 

wardrobes that fill his front garden. He stands with 

his hands on his hips and smiles at the fruits of his 

labour. This enterprise has allowed him to prosper, 

to Abdul, as with the other villagers in the district, 

the real story of their success is aimed at the future: 

making certain the younger generation understands 

the importance of their teak plantations. 

Since KHJL’s FSC certification, other communities 

have organised themselves. They have applied for 

small grants formed their own local initiatives and 

joined KHJL. Solidarity has made them more confident 

in applying for use of the land. For the first 

time these communities – previously some of the 

poorest in Indonesia – are planning for the future. 

A secure and sustainable livelihood means many 

things to these villagers: better schooling, better 

access to health and a better rural economy. This is 

only a small beginning, but an encouraging one. 

Pictures: © Tim Lewis/ Handcrafted Films. 

The factory that Tran works for has been a great 

success. There is a growing demand from garden 

furniture retailers for FSC labelled products because 

of the guarantee that it offers: forest workers 

safety and rights. This is why Tran knows that in 

the future he will have a goo d job that can provide 

enough for him and his family. 

Make sure you look for the FSC logo when you 

buy paper and wooded products to be sure that 

you are supporting better conditions in the forests 

for the people that depend on them around the 

world. 

Picture: Tran working for Scancom in Vietnam.© 

FSC Denmark 


Trailblazer for sustainability 

The Roda Group in Bolivia 

Bolivia has seen the most rapid and comprehensive 

integration of FSC forestry principles of any country 

in the world. Since 1995, more than 2 million hectares 

of natural tropical forest has been certified. 

This area places Bolivia at the top among tropical 

countries in FSC protected natural forests. 

In less than a decade, the Forest Stewardship 

Council (FSC) certification lets to Industria de 

Muebles Roda (IMR), of Santa Cruz, Bolivia grows 

an average over 30 % per year opening an international 

market in USA, UK, Europe and Mexico 

to certified products. IMR expects to reach over 

US$ 12 million in sales of FSC certified products 

by spring. The retail value of these products totals 

over US$25 million dollars. 

Since 1996, IMR, has been a regional catalyst 

and early innovator in FSC certified forestry in 

Latin America. By being the first to certify its forestry 

holdings, IMR as division of the Roda Group, 

spearheaded the greening of the country’s forest 

industry. The company currently manages more 

than one million hectars of natural tropical forest 

under FSC certification. Most of CIMAL/IMR’s certified 

concessions are located in Bolivia’s Chiquitano 

Dry Forest. Characterized by dry, thorny scrub and 

vegetation, the forest is considered one of the most 

biodiverse dry forests in the world. “Without FSC 

we would not have a business today”, states IMR 

Marketing Director Robert Simeone. The company 

boosts 100% FSC certification of their forest lands 

and of the products it manufactures. “Everything 

we do and everyone in our organization is committed 

to FSC certification.” 

The diversification of species has been a key in this 

process. Before 1995, 80% of Bolivia’s wood product 

exports depended on only one specie, Mahogany. 

Today, market demand for FSC products opened 

the door for many of Bolivia’s most abundant albeit 

lesser-known wood species. This has been a key 

element to IMR’s success since sustainable forest 

management (SFM) is based on giving primary importance 

to a forest’s most abundant species and 

not just its commercially recognized species. 

According to Katherine Pierront, the Rainforest 

Alliance’s regional manager for South America, 

“IMR has not only complied with all of the conditions 

established in their certification contracts, but they 

strive to be leaders in all aspects of forest management 

and certification.” For example, the company 

is the only one in Bolivia that is harvesting and 

making use of tree branches, in addition to logs. 

IMR was the first company to implement guidelines 

for identifying high conservation value forests. The 

company has a comprehensive internal auditing 

system to monitor production, quality and the implementation 

of environmental and social guidelines. 

In 2006, the Roda Group was recognized as 

a Corporate Sustainable Standard-Setter, by the 

Rainforest Alliance. “The greatest satisfaction in 

the certification process is to know that we are doing 

things the right way,” said Cristobal Roda, CEO 

of Grupo Roda. “We are so convinced that this is 

the way to go that we will continue until we achieve 

a ‘certified country.’” 



Robert Simeone 

Sylvania Forestry 

Consulting and 

Sales Director at 

Industria de Muebles 

Impacts of FSC certification in tropical regions footprints | 15 

Roda

Dr. Marion Karmann 

is working on develop- 

ment of criteria and 

indicators for certifica- 

tion of responsible 

forest management 

since 1989 for ITW 

and later for FSC IC 

and FSC Germany. 

Since January 2008 

she works in the new 

established monitoring 

and evaluation 

program.. 

Think globally, act locally 

FSC helps to reduce poverty 

Efforts to reduce poverty gained new impetus from 

the UN Millennium Development Goals, aiming to 

drastically reduce the proportion of people suffering 

from hunger and living on less than one dollar 

a day. A significant number of these most marginalized 

people still have access to forests. The Center 

for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) estimated 

in 2003 that at least 400 million people 

depend primarily on forests for subsistence and 

financial needs. 

Forests offer great opportunities for poverty reduction, 

and responsible forest management (FM) can 

deliver long-term economic, environmental and 

social benefits for the rural poor. Forest based activities 

can support subsistence livelihoods (with 

forest products like mushrooms, honey, medicines, 

bush meat, fodder, fuel, and construction wood). 

Sometimes forest products and services are marketable 

regionally; they provide income from employment 

in formal and informal sectors as well as 

direct and indirect benefits. 

Third party certification of FM and related processes 

can offer many different benefits in addition to price 

premiums: improved market access for products, 

lowered costs to gain new clients, better organization 

of FM and of the people involved, consolidation 

of land tenure, and recognition of customary rights 

and local cultures. Additional ways that certification 

can benefit communities include increased effectiveness 

in FM, increased organization and marketing 

through institutional partnerships, systems 

of payment for ecosystem services, eco-tourism, 

and transfer payments based on Corporate Social 

Responsibility awareness of ethical trading. FSCcertified 

forest products sometimes earn price premiums 

in international markets, though the sale of 

those products is dominated by large-scale commercial 

operations and so premiums rarely reach 

the local community 15) . 

Although currently only 5% of the area of FSC 

certified forests is managed by communities, the 

number of communities involved is much larger: 

1 out of 7 FSC forest management certificates 

is held by a community. But the concept of FSC 

certification was originally not designed for small 

operations. Therefore the value of certification to 

communities, especially in the South, is not always 

immediately evident due to insufficient investment 

capital, scale barriers to effective marketing of timber, 

environmental, technical and political barriers 

preventing the marketing of even non-timber forest 

products, limited market access and business 

know-how, and the cost of certification. 

Today FSC considers it a priority to address the 

needs of the small communities with regards to 

better understanding and managing the forests 

through special programs for group certification 

and for small and low intensity managed forests 

(SLIMFs). The SLIMFs program was developed 

to widen access to certification and to bring the 

resulting benefits to communities that would otherwise 

have difficulty getting certified. Still, the 

SLIMFs program is not the silver bullet; additional 

actions are needed. FSC is reviewing options for 

the development of a separate program that would 

identify community forest operations in FSC documents 

or through Fair Trade labelling for the products 

that come from small-scale, community based 

forest operations. FSC is also seeking to strengthen 

the social standards that are applied both in 

FM and in forest product processing operations. 

It appears reasonable that a small additional price 

premium for Community or Fair Trade labelled 

FSC products might emerge in some international 

markets. This, together with a possible social premium, 

could make the difference for community 

forest owners worldwide, strengthening their ability 

to compete in those international markets. FSC 

is looking into the Fair Trade labelling umbrella organization 

FLO to assess the possibility of creating 

a double seal that would identify community based 

forest products. 

ScanCom took a proactive approach with FSC certification 

by being one of the first to produce FSC 

garden furniture and thus commit to working with retailers 

willing to carry an established percentage of 

FSC products in their stores. By involving itself with 

environmental organizations such as WWF/VFTN, 

ScanCom has contributed to increasing awareness 

of environmental and social safeguards in the forest 

industry and helped to improve forest management. 


Cooperate growth 

Scancom’s increased environmental and social 

awareness has required a large investment of financial 

resources, time and labor. However, it’s 

proven to be worth the costs because of the many 

benefits they’ve received. ScanCom was one of the 

first private organizations to receive the WWF “Gift 

to the Earth Award” in 2001. Because of its leadership 

in the marketplace, Scancom is more competitive 

and has gained credibility from retailers and 

consumers who are looking for ethical products. As 

the demand for FSC products grows worldwide, 

ScanCom is now one of the major suppliers who 

can supply the marketplace. 

“Act positively within the local community” 

ScanCom has a duty to act responsibly not only in 

the forest but also in the local communities where 

it operates. Adopting an FSC policy has pushed 

ScanCom to develop good labor policies and conditions 

for its employees. ScanCom Vietnam has 

financially supported 5,000 people directly and 

40,000 people indirectly. They work based on 

the ‘ScanCom International Social Accountability 

Standard’, which is a set of principles and criteria 

based on the SA8000 Standard of Social 

Accountability International (SAI). 

“Be an active part of the local development” 

ScanCom has been present in Brazil since 2002 

and employs around 1,000 people. There it represents 

one of the largest Eucalyptus sawmills 

worldwide. Increasing demand for FSC timber from 

the ScanCom Group provides many job opportunities 

in the poor state of Rio Grance do Sul and a 

new level of economic development in the region. 

“Besides the contribution of economic development, 

ScanCom is one of the best companies to work for, 

offering great benefits like health insurance, food 

subsidies, and a great working environment. Once 

our main focus was solely the client; now externally 

and internally, it is our employees” said Wenzel 

Nielsen, Managing Director of ScanCom Brazil. 

ScanCom’s strategy, which has worked towards 

FSC certification in all of their operations, has also 

positively affected Brazilian forests. They have done 

this by educating forest owners to the added value 

of FSC-certified forests. Wenzel Nielsen explains 

that “Scancom has, since the beginning, placed 

a strong focus on developing FSC certified forest 

suppliers. We estimate that more than 100.000 

hectares of Eucalyptus forests have been FSC certified 

in Brazil based on demand from Scancom.” 



Through environmental and social compliance 

ScanCom 

ScanCom is a young company, formed in 1995; with 

its head office is in Korsor, Denmark. It has production 

facilities in Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil and sales organi- 

zations in the US, the UK and Germany. It sells garden 

furniture to some of the biggest retailers, supermarkets 

and DIY stores worldwide. 

Involvement with the FSC started in 1999, at a time 

when ScanCom’s customers were under pressure from 

environmental and social groups, to develop improved 

ethical policies with their suppliers. These expectations 

led Scancom to a radical change in their environmental 

and social policies, and enabled them to become a 

leader in this field. 

Today, ScanCom is a fast growing company, with more 

than 5,000 employees worldwide, and a turnover of 

more than 185 million dollars. 

Kai-Uwe Sielaff 

Sales and Marketing 

Director of Scancom 

International AVS 

Pictures: 

© Scancom 


Sarah Price 

works at TFT’s office 

in Switzerland as 

Communication & 

Program Manager. 

She works to support 

a number of TFT’s 

projects around the 

world, while advancing 

the communications 

program for the 

organization. She 

holds a Master in 

Forest Science from 

Yale University. 

Sustainable forest management 

An example from the Congo Basin 

Respecting the rights of indigenous peoples is an 

essential component of implementing sustainable 

forest management. However, for many forest 

companies operating in culturally diverse tropical 

regions, just how to accomplish this goal is not obvious. 

For one company operating in the Republic 

of Congo, its pursuance of FSC certification has 

led to the development of new and innovative technologies 

and best practices for conducting responsible 

forest management in the region. 

Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB) possesses 

long-term harvesting rights over four forest concessions 

in the Republic of Congo. The concessions 

cover about 1.3 million hectares of dense 

tropical rainforest. The forests are also home to 

26,700 people (2006), 9600 considered indigenous, 

of whom 50% are Mbendjele Pygmies that 

live throughout the forest concessions. 

With barriers in communication and culture, CIB’s 

quest to progressively pursue Forest Stewardship 

Council (FSC) certification in all four concessions 

has led to the development of new techniques for 

consultation, conflict resolution and benefit sharing. 

In partnership with Tropical Forest Trust, Forest 

Peoples Programme, London School of Economics 

and Helveta Ltd, over the last few years they have 

developed tools and practices which have empowered 

local indigenous people to get involved in 

CIB’s forest management decision making. 

Two of the key elements of CIB’s social program 

that evolved from this partnership are an indigenous 

peoples’ resource and cultural mapping pro- 

gramme and the development of an indigenous 

language radio station. 

The resource mapping component has involved 

the development of icon-based, GPS technology 

to enable illiterate people to conduct the mapping 

of key resources themselves. By locating and 

mapping forest areas important to their day-to-day 

lives, their culture or spiritual identity, CIB established 

a basis for communication between the people 

living throughout the forest and the company. 

With maps in their possession, the forest people 

have been able to come to an agreement with 

CIB on the protection of key resources. To date, 

all mapped areas and community resources have 

been formally protected by CIB and demarcated 

as such in the field. 

The indigenous language radio station, or ‘Biso na 

Biso’ (between us), is in the development stages. It 

will be staffed by indigenous people and aim to ensure 

that consistent communication channels are 

enhanced and maintained between the forest people 

and CIB. At press time, the radio station building 

has been constructed and radio equipment 

is in transit towards Pokola, Republic of Congo. 

Eventually the radio will broadcast throughout the 

region, to handheld, wind-up radios distributed to 

people within the forest. Broadcasting stories collected 

from local journalists, traditional music, and 

educational programs, the radio station will push 

the boundaries and norms of what it means to truly 

practice sustainable forest management in the 

tropics. 

Helveta GPS unit with 

symbolic language. 

Picture right: 

Old pygmy woman 

marking a sacred tree. 

©Tropical Forest Trust 


Changing climate 

Effects on the FSC 

FSC can be an important tool and means for climate 

change reduction via reduced deforestation and 

degradation in tropical countries. There are three 

important tasks that FSC can fulfil that a successful 

REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation 

and Degradation) scheme needs. First, on the 

ground trusted operations will deliver real long term 

reduction in emissions. Secondly, FSC certification 

will include a role for the consumer countries. And 

thirdly, FSC certified timber plantations can supply 

wood when REDD is successful in reducing 

supply. 

The United Nations Framework Convention on 

Climate Chance (UNFCCC) is a relatively new powerful 

movement that tries to limit climate change by 

curbing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The 

Kyoto protocol developed by the UNFCCC uses 

assigned caps on GHG emissions for each contributing 

country and allows trading of carbon between 

countries to fulfil their obligations. 

The latest tool discussed under UNFCCC is the so 

called REDD. This tool was adopted at the UNFCCC 

Conference of Parties no 13 in Bali, Indonesia in 

December 2007. The final text (Decision 2/CP.13) 

acknowledges incentives to reduce emissions from 

deforestation and forest degradation in developing 

countries as well as the role of conservation, sustainable 

management of forests and enhancement 

of forest carbon stocks in developing countries. 

Although the mechanism and details of how 

REDD should operate were left open in Bali, they 

developed a strong guiding principle for REDD: 

“Measurable, reportable and verifiable”. This has 

spurred many activities to quantify carbon and sustainable 

forest management (as mentioned in the 

Bali text). It is precisely this last point, quantifying 

sustainable forestry, in which FSC has more than 

10 years of experience. 

To date, international discussions on REDD have 

focused on technical requirements for quantifying 

emissions reductions, tracking forest cover change, 

and distributing financial incentives. Many (though 

not all) of these principles are also part of the FSC 

certification scheme, e.g.: 

FSC Principle #1 compliance with national laws is 

linked to UNFCCC REDD rule to adhere to national 

circumstances; 

FSC Principle #3: Indigenous peoples’ rights is very 

much in line with the UNFCCC that addresses the 

needs of local and indigenous communities; 

FSC Principle #8: Monitoring and assessment 

is of course linked to the UNFCCC criteria of 

“Measurable, reportable and verifiable.” 

But more importantly, carbon payments or carbon 

trade under UNFCCC will only work if the public really 

trusts that carbon emissions are being reduced. 

Currently, the climate community does not believe 

in the ability of the forest community to deliver real 

and tangible reductions in carbon emissions, which 

hampers progress. So how can a relatively new 

framework like UNFCCC, which often has no connection 

to the forestry agencies in different countries, 

get on the ground evidence that reductions 

are real and rewards can be paid? 

Here is where FSC has long and hard won experience. 

FSC certification is granted only after professional 

third party assessors have visited the site(s) 

in question and are satisfied that the ten principles 

and criteria have been fulfilled, and the sites will 

be reassessed every few years. This detailed and 

thorough evaluation of forest operations is a major 

component of FSC, and I think it is a structure that 

UNFCCC needs to use. The production of wood 

in FSC certified operations will emit considerably 

less carbon from their operations since logging is 



Pictures: © FSC 

Fred Stolle 

Program manager 

for World Resouce 

Institutes (WRI) Forest 

Landscape Objective, 

working on forest 

governance, forest 

changes, and their 

impacts on climate 

change, and biofuels 

issues in Southeast 

Asia, especially 

Indonesia. 


Andre de Freitas, 


FSC International 

carried out with minimal impact to the surrounding 

stands of trees. FSC in the tropics could thus be 

a method and label for successful REDD compliance. 

Rewards from the reduced emissions might 

then help to pay for bringing the forest up to FSC 

standards. 

FSC can be an additional implementation body 

for REDD, because it is an organization that has 

proven its viability and trustworthiness, necessary 

qualities of a payment scheme like REDD. 

But there is more that FSC has that is necessary 

for REDD to succeed. REDD is now only focused 

on the role (and reward) that developing countries 

can play in decreasing carbon emissions from their 

forest operations. FSC takes a wider scope, brings 

in the demand of timber and carbon into the equation. 

It is important that developed countries also 

play their role in REDD by reducing their demand 

for unsustainable timber. If they don’t, it will hurt 

FSC in a changing climate 

FSC recognizes the critical role that forest ecosystems 

play in regulating the earth’s climate and that most forest 

ecosystems are also threatened by climate change. 

The recent UNFCCC Bali conference has also recog- 

nized the importance of forests in relation to this issue 

and stressed the potential for Reduced Emissions from 

Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). 

FSC believes that all forest and plantations should be 

managed in an ethical and responsible manner to credible 

social, environmental and economic standards. The FSC 

Principles and Criteria are widely considered the ‘gold 

standard’ for forest management worldwide and it is argu- 

able that forests certified according to them are in line with 

the REDD approach adopted by UNFCCC. 

Due to the adoption of best practices and minimization 

of environmental impacts FSC certified tropical forests 

present a strong case for REDD, having a lower carbon 

impact than similar non certified production forests. 

Furthermore, by ensuring that these areas remain as 

forests in the long term, FSC certified tropical forests 

contribute to reduce deforestation. This happens because 

FSC certification helps to increase the value of forest land- 

REDD’s chances of succeeding because forest 

operators will continue with business as usual if 

it is profitable for them to do so. It is up to consumers 

and producers to change their practices in 

order for REDD to succeed. FSC certification can 

help consumers identify wood from sources with 

lower carbon emissions and give the option to governments 

to increase the demand for wood from 

low emissions operations, thus supporting REDD 

schemes. 

If REDD is successful and there is a reduction in 

wood produced from unsustainable sources, supply 

must increase from well-managed plantations 

in order to fulfil the demand for wood. FSC certified 

plantations could be the solution. Increased production 

by well-managed plantations is a necessity 

for providing wood to prevent the growth of less 

carbon friendly products like plastics. 

use, reducing the economic argument that often drives 

the conversion to other types of land-use in these regions. 

Even though not yet widely used for this purpose, FSC 

certification can also be used to support the recognition 

of the carbon stored in protected forest areas, where the 

management objectives are related to conservation. 

The world’s tropical forests continue to be under intense 

pressure from other land-uses and from predatory logging, 

resulting in high carbon emissions, biodiversity loss and 

water pollution. In these regions, FSC certification is partic- 

ularly valuable to promote forest conservation and reduce 

forest based carbon emissions. However, efforts to stop 

deforestation and other forest-based mitigation activities 

should be seen in the context of being additional to, and 

not a substitute for, necessary reductions in greenhouse 

gas emissions from other sectors. 

FSC aims to promote the use or adoption of FSC’s Forest 

Stewardship Standards and certification system as a 

means to assure co-benefits and as a pre-requisite for any 

carbon financing or financial incentives for forest related 

climate change mitigation approaches. 


The jaguars lounge 

FSC in Bolivia 

Bolivia ranks among the top countries in the world in 

area of natural forests under FSC certified management, 

sixth for its coverage of tropical forests, and 

among the top ten for its biodiversity. Forests managed 

for timber range from the wet Andean foothills 

to the drier lowlands, and most of them have good 

conservation status, harboring jaguars and many 

other threatened species. These timber management 

areas still form large forest blocks that are 

functionally important as source of biodiversity and 

ecosystem services, but they are threatened by the 

expansion of industrial crops, intensive ranching, 

and unplanned colonization. 

The “Chiquitano” or Bolivian lowland dry forest is a 

seasonal tropical forest spread on the Precambrian 

shield, associated hills and plains of eastern Bolivia, 

northern Paraguay and western Brazil. It also occurs 

as isolated patches on dry Andean slopes, 

as evidence of a wider distribution during drier climatic 

ages. Because of deforestation rates and its 

high biodiversity, it is considered an endangered 

ecoregion and a conservation priority at global and 

regional levels. An assessment made in 2005 by 

the Chiquitano Forest Conservation Foundation 

(FCBC) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) defined 

a 24 million hectare range for this ecoregion 

in three countries (66% Bolivia, 26% Brazil, 7% 

Paraguay). They also estimated that 15 million 

hectare of forests still remain (92% Bolivia, 2% 

Brazil, 6% Paraguay) and categorized the relative 

value of forest patches, ecological gradients, and 

the landscape matrix for biodiversity, connectivity 

and ecosystem function. This analysis showed that 

the most extensive and least disturbed Chiquitano 

forest is found in Bolivia, and suggested that its 

functional attributes may be maintained if protected 

areas, indigenous territories and forestry operations 

(certified and not) are appropriately managed 

according to soil and climate limitations. 

One of the areas predicted as key for its ecological 

value was the El Encanto forestry concession, 

where in 2006 the Wildlife Conservation Society 

conducted a two-month systematic survey of mammals 

by camera-trapping. The study used 20 camera 

stations and covered 36 km² of forest including 

a riverine reserve and a selectively logged area. Its 

results showed a high abundance of tapirs, and the 

presence of six species of cats (jaguar, puma, ocelot, 

margay, yaguarundi and Geoffroy’s cat), two 

brocket deer (red and brown), the rare bush dog, 

and three species of vulnerable game birds (bare 

faced curassow, piping guan, and rusty margined 

guan). This wildlife richness seemed to be a consequence 

of the size of the forest stand (part of a 

2 million ha forest block), the availability of critical 

resources (dry-season water sources, salt licks, 

fruits from the riverine forest, etc.) and the protection 

from hunting provided by the certified forestry 

operation. 

Findings from this kind of assessment have 

been applied by the Bolivian Council for Forest 

Certification (CFV) to develop national standards 

for FSC certification and to guide the management 

of high conservation value forests. To date, Bolivia 

has over two million hectares of certified natural forests, 

half of that in the Chiquitano dry forest, which 

allows several private enterprises to sell value-added 

products to certified markets. However, several 

million hectares more are legally or illegally logged 

with little economic returns for their community or 

small private owners. The forest is then converted 

to other uses that usually exhaust the soil, alter water 

regimes and produce negative impacts on the 

landscape. To prevent the loss of this natural capital 

it is necessary to facilitate the certification process 

for small stakeholders and to educate consumers 

so they understand the value of the Chiquitano 

forest products. 

Picture: Jaguar observed in the Chiquitano Dry Forest. 

© Wildlife Conservation Society 



Damián I. Rumiz 

Coordinator of the 

Wildlife Conservation 

Society, Bolivia, 

Planning Ecologist 

in Chiquitano Forest 

Conservation 

Foundation Project, 

Board Director of the 

Bolivian Council for 

Forest Certification 


Yati A. Bun 

FSC Contact Person 

in Papua New Guinea 

and member of 

Foundation for People 

and Community 

Development (FPCD) 

and Israel F. Bewang, 

FPCD, Papua New 

Guinea 

Hope for people and forests 

FSC and forestry in Papua New Guinea 

Forestry Problems in PNG 

Since Papua New Guinea (PNG) became independent 

from Australia in 1975, sustainable forest 

management (SFM) has not been widely practiced 

in the country. The 2007 ITTO Diagnostic Mission 

report of PNG highlighted that PNG has a long 

way to go in achieving the ITTO Objective 2000, 

in which member countries are expected to trade 

from SFM areas. The same report mentions that 

harvesting laws are not implemented, due primarily 

to a lack of government capacity. Environmental 

safeguards are not being complied with during logging, 

which leaves behind environmental destruction, 

damaged waterways and unprecedented consequences 

for ecosystems. 

80% of PNG is covered with forests. 97% of the 

land is owned by the local indigenous people who 

must be consulted before any major changes in 

land use. However, this does not happen because 

landowner rights are being sold at low costs without 

accounting for the long-term impacts of logging. 

In addition, logging permits are only granted for 

the period of time that the land is logged, without 

considering sustainable criteria for the period after 

harvesting. 

FSC certification in PNG 

Forest certification was introduced in 1993 when 

a nationwide survey was conducted to gather the 

opinions of stakeholders on forest certification in 

PNG. The first FSC-certificate was issued in 1994 

to a community owned forest as part of the Bainings 

project in East New Britain, which was adminis- 

Shymala and the rubber trees 

Shymala is 57 years old and lives in the southern part of 

India, and she will retire in one year. She is known as a 

strong women and has been a leader for more than 34 

years in a rubber factory in New Ambadi. The factory pro- 

duces balloons, shoes and rubber balls from the rubber 

trees in a local FSC forest. 

The rubber factory receives a higher price for the FSC 

products on the condition that the money is reinvested to 

improve the conditions for the local workers. The workers 

helped decide how the money should be spent, and they 

decided to pay for their children’s education. Shymala’s 

tered by the then Pacific Heritage Foundation. This 

operation ceased because of a volcanic eruption in 

1996. Also in 1996 a national FSC Working Group 

was established. The writer was appointed as 

the national coordinator to develop National FSC 

Standards for PNG. 

Why did FPCD take the initiative 

to help solve the forest issue? 

Currently there are two group certifications in place 

that cover community forests of around 30,000 ha 

in total. One certificate is managed by Foundation 

for People and Community Development (FPCD). 

FPCD is a local NGO established in 1992 with the 

mission to help improve and enhance the quality 

of life of the local people. Its goal is to encourage 

PNG indigenous people to practice sustainable 

forest management (SFM) in their forests for social, 

economic and environmental benefits. 

Instead of simply criticizing what the government 

and the forest industry are doing, FPCD works to 

solve problems concerning PNG’s forests and is 

taking the initiative to find a way forward. One of the 

main problems was the lack of SFM in the country 

and the exclusion of forest landowners from forest 

management. FPCD is teaching forest landowners 

to practice SFM on their own and helping them 

market their forest products to get fair prices. 

FPCD saw that FSC brings stakeholders together, 

making it an effective system to improve forestry 

practices. Landowners in PNG will not be marginalised 

under FSC system and, for the first time, 

landowners will be on the same level as all the 

grandchild Roopa can finally get the opportunity to train 

as a nurse, her lifelong dream. 

To Shymala and her granddaughter Roopa, FSC is not 

only about preserving the forest but also about making 

their dreams come true. 

Make sure you look for the FSC logo when you buy paper 

and wooded products to be certain that you are supporting 

better conditions in the forests for the people that depend 

on them around the world. 

Picture:© FSC Denmark 

| footprints FSCTrademark © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C. (FSC-SECR-0012)

Picture: Certified timber shipped on 4 canoes down stream 

to road side for pickup with truck to town for eventual 

export in Papua Neuguinea. © Foundation for People and 

Community Development. 

other stakeholders. FSC empowers landowners 

to have a say in the development of their forest 

resources. 

FSC appears to suit PNG society very well. In particular 

the land tenure system has already shown 

that SFM can be administered with the certification 

of landowner groups in PNG. The group certification 

of FPCD started in 2007 with four communities 

in Madang province, and many more landowner 

groups are lining up to join this group outside 

Madang. 

Obstacles for Forest Certification 

One of the major obstacles for FSC certification is a 

lack of demand for certified timber from PNG. The 

government itself does not adequately support FSC 

certification, and there is a lack of public pressure 

against the forest industry. 

What could change through FSC certification 

First, FSC certification will enable landowners to 

take charge of forestry management on their land. 

They will not be marginalized in decisions regarding 

their forests. Second, FSC certification will enable 

landowners to receive the full benefits from the 

management of their forests including a sustainable 

source of income. Additionally FSC certification will 

instil sustainable forest management practices and 

end illegal logging in PNG. 

Carlos and the trees. 



“When I was 15, my big brother Hector taught me how to use a chain 

saw so I could help my family earn money by cutting down trees. He 

was also the one who helped me get a position in the local group of 

forest owners who sell wood from Rio Viejo – the small village where 

I was born. My brother left the group because business was slow, but 

the rest of us kept on working and in 1997 we decided to certify our 

forest when we heard about FSC. 

We liked the idea of FSC certification but had no idea how we would 

make anybody buy the certified wood. At the same time several large 

privately owned companies got access to export wood from our area. 

This meant that a lot of forest disappeared and the prices for wood 

were very low. 

Things weren’t looking too good for our small business and we were 

very close to giving up. But then an offer came along that would change 

everything. The Danish environmental organisation Nepenthes came 

to us and offered us a marked contract that would secure us with long 

term business relationships with Danish companies that wanted to 

buy certified wood. 

Picture: Carlos from Honduras. © Miriam Dalsgaard 

The help from Nepenthes made everything different - for us and for 

the forest. We get a better price for the wood and there is an increas- 

ing demand for lesser known species which makes the forest much 

more valuable to us now. As a result we contributed to marking the 

forests boarders clearly, and we are keeping settlers and illegal forest 

workers out of that area. On top of this I can now afford to live in a 

brick house and send my daughter Yasmin to school. 

There is still a lot of illegal and unsustainable logging in Honduras, but 

our story shows that a win-win situation actually can be created - both 

for the environment and for the humans living in it.” 


Fonvinyuh 

Gordian Fanso 

Project officer at the 

Forest Stewardship 

Council International 

Centre, Bonn. Works 

with a Public Private 

Partnership project 

between FSC, GTZ, 

IKEA, StoraEnso and 

ASI 

The Lomie community forest 

in the eastern province of Cameroon 

Lomie is a small town in the middle of the rainforest 

and a prominent administrative town in the 

Department of Haut Nyong, Eastern Province of 

Cameroon. The local people are made up of two 

main ethnic groups; the Nzime (Bantou people) 

and the Baka (Pygmy people). They have strong 

links with the forest and depend on it for their food 

and livelihood. In an effort to take advantage of 

the 1994 forest law No94/01 and its subsequent 

implementation decree, the Lomie community forests 

of Medjoh,Ngola and Haut Nyong were established. 

The 1994 forest law, which is seen as 

the second revision of laws governing the forest 

sector in Cameroon, is the law that revolutionised 

the Cameroonian forest sector (Ekoko, 2001). 

It divided the forest estate into Permanent and 

Non Permanent forest and amongst other changes 

brought about community forestry not only to 

Cameroon but to the Sub-Saharan region of Africa 

(ODI, 2002). 

After its establishment, the Lomie community forests 

of Medjoh, Ngola were faced with several 

challenges. These range from financial, technical, 

social and cultural problems, to responsibly managing 

and marketing their forest resources. These 

problems are not just specific to the Lomie community 

in the eastern province of Cameroon, but also 

to other community forest initiative in the Lomie district 

and the rest of the country. The problems communities 

faced in establishing and operating community 

forests in Cameroon has led some scholars 

to question whether communities in Cameroon are 

ready for community forest initiatives like the one 

seen here, which focuses on timber exploitation. 

To meet these challenges, the locals of these 

communities came up with the idea of a Business 

Service Provider (BSP), intended to act and mediate 

on behalf of the communities on matters of 

responsible forest management and marketing 

their forest products. This BSP goes by the French 

acronym SCNIC. This BSP is now a reality and a 

source of pride for the locals. This is not only because 

it is able to link both the Pygmy and Nzimie 

people to the national and international markets, 

but also because it is a local initiative of the communities 

for the communities. 

The major challenge for them now is moving towards 

responsible forest management and subsequently 

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. 

FSC certification will bring about major 

improvement in the lives of community residents 

and forest workers in the Lomie community forest. 

One example of a possible improvement could be 

a rule against women transporting wood on their 

heads from forest to storage areas, which causes 

grave neck and back problems. Increased revenues 

can be expected from the sale of certified 

community timber, especially given the discussion 

of identification of community timber in the marketplace. 

Another major advantage is that FSC certification 

will bring about a certain degree of resource 

tenure. It is rarely the case in francophone Africa 

that local communities can have a significant say 

on land matters. The FSC certificate demands 

management plans give communities a certain 

degree of long term security of their land and resource. 

With FSC certification there is also hope 

that these communities can safeguard their forest 

resources for future generations. It remains to be 

seen whether this will be another success story. 

Picture: Baka pygmy community living in the Lomie 

Community Forest. © Gordian Fanso 


Lesser known species 

A largely untapped potential 

Tropical forests contain an incredible number of 

tree species. This species richness is reflected in 

the variety of tropical timber products, which vary in 

colour from black to warm yellow and even bright 

purple and green. Every species has its own specific 

characteristics (strength, durability, working 

properties) and thus is suited for distinct purposes. 

Unfortunately the vast majority of traditional timber 

traders consider variety a problem. For many 

products, only one timber species is acceptable. 

But only harvesting one or two species in a highly 

diverse rainforest throws the ecosystem out of balance 

and is an unsustainable practice. In responsibly 

managed tropical rainforests, low volumes of a 

variety of species are harvested, which preserves 

the biodiversity and species distribution. 

Precious Woods is Europe’s market leader in tropical 

FSC-timber, as well as so-called “Lesser Known 

Species”. The company has gained this position by 

recognizing the natural variety in timbers as a positive 

attribute and by realizing the full potential of 

what different timbers have to offer. Currently 55 

different species from its Brazilian operations are 

found on its yards in the Netherlands. Some species 

have been promoted so effectively that they 

are no longer Lesser Known Species. This is the 

case even for very difficult applications such as 

window frames. 



Introducing new species is typically a slow process. 

First, the company identifies promising timbers 

found in the rainforests in large enough volumes. 

Experts take a first look at the timber and then test 

it to see if the material is easy to dry, saw, plane, 

glue, etc. Often further tests by specialised institutes 

are necessary either because independent information 

is needed or to have to timber accepted 

under a contingency fund. 

When all tests come out positive, partners are 

sought to test the wood. The process costs a fair 

amount, especially if a timber species eventually 

fails the test. Precious Woods would not have been 

able to introduce so many new species had it not 

been for its large number of committed partners 

willing to share some of the costs and risks. These 

partners use new timbers in bridges, cladding or 

beautiful interior applications. 

Precious Woods is convinced that the market share 

of Lesser Known Species will continue to grow. This 

will happen partly out of necessity due to increasing 

shortages in traditional timber species and partly 

because the new species have so much to offer. 

This is good news. Economically viable responsible 

forest management depends on making good use 

of what the forests can provide. Precious Woods 

and its increasing European network of partners 

will do their best to continue to lead the way. 

Arnold van Kreveld 

Head of Marketing 

and Sustainability 

for Precious Woods 

Europe 

Picture: FSC Cumaru 

balconies at a private 

luxury home on the 

Starnberger See, 

Germany 

´Terrace System` 

Hartmann 

Munich, Germany 

© Precious Woods 


Bettina Gilomen 

Head of Marketing for 

the Precious Woods 

Holding 

Surprising facts 

about responsible forest management 

Did you know that according to FSC criteria, responsible 

forest management in tropical forests 

leaves most of the forest untouched? Only a few 

trees per hectare are harvested. Here are some 

surprising facts about reforestation and responsible 

forest management at Precious Woods, which 

has been harvesting in tropical forests since 1990: 

In the existing natural forests of Precious Woods 

Brazil, every tree with a diameter of 40 cm is identified, 

marked and recorded in computer files. This 

means that millions of trees are identified and 

monitored over decades. 

3 

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Some 25% of the forests of Precious Woods 

Brazil are set aside as preservation areas. 

At least 10% of the trees which could be 

harvested are left standing as seed bearers. 

Trees of religious or economic importance for 

the local population are not harvested. 

The Amazon forest contains over 80 different 

timber species, of which Precious Woods 

successfully sells more than 50 species, 

leaving a natural composition of species in the 

forest. 

Precious Woods harvests only 15-20 m_ (= 2-4 

trees) of round wood per hectare in each 25 

year rotation cycle. 

Directional felling minimizes damage to 

adjacent trees and leaves the surrounding area 

largely intact. 

To avoid damage to the forest floor, logs are 

winched to the nearest skid trail by steel cable. 

This significantly reduces the number of roads 

in the forest. 

Precious Woods’ plantations in Central America 

are interlaced with secondary forest remnants 

and native single trees and enhanced with 

fruit and flowering trees, transforming formerly 

impoverished landscapes into visually 

attractive, rich mosaics. 

Sustainable forest management according to 

FSC rules preserves not only flora and fauna, but 

also provides local employment and better living 

conditions. 

Precious Woods typically provides jobs 

in impoverished areas with few income 

opportunities. Most of the workforce originates 

from the immediate vicinity. In Brazil the 

majority of the jobs represent permanent, 

long-term employment. Additionally, 

Precious Woods can offer temporary working 

opportunities in the harvest season. 

In many forest areas, Precious Woods has built 

schools for the children of its employees, as 

well as hospitals. 

Precious Woods regularly trains its employees 

in equipment maintenance, safety and 

waste disposal, disease prevention, anger 

management and first aid. 

Precious Woods Para offers a 24 hour 

emergency medical care to their workers 

nearby local communities. 

Through a partnership between Precious 

Woods Amazon and the local branch of Banco 

do Brasil, employees have access to a microcredit 

scheme. 

Through a joint project between AVIVE 

(Associação Vida Verde da Amazônia), WWF 

and Care, local families receive direct payment 

for collecting fruits and seeds. 

Picture: Felling activities in accordance to FSC standards. 

© Precious Woods. 

6 | footprints FSCTrademark © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C. (FSC-SECR-0012) 

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Ruben and the guitar 

FSC certified musical instruments 

Ruben Gomes is a man with special ambitions. He 

wants to teach children and young people how to 

take care of the environment and provide jobs for the 

local area. Subsequently he rearranged his home 

in the big city of Manaus in Brazil to fit the needs 

of a school where children and young people learn 

how to build guitars from responsibly sourced wood 

as certified by FSC. At the same time he teaches 

them about ecology and responsible forestry. 

And Ruben’s project is important. The area around 

Amazonas is home to the world’s fastest growing 

population. During the last ten years the population 

grew from 850.000 to 1.5 million people. As a result 

large areas of forests are being used and unemployment 

is soaring. 

Ruben and his colleagues saw FSC as a good solution 

to the many problems. By focusing on wellmanaged 

forestry they could create jobs and still 

protect the surrounding nature. 

The school has grown a lot since the beginning. It 

has become so big that Ruben and his wife Fatima 

had to move to the other side of the street to make 

room for the 70 students. For Ruben, the guitar is a 

symbol of hope and a more sustainable future. 

“Supervising the whole production process of the 

musical instruments under the Forest Stewardship 

Council’s forest management standards allows the 

children to work as a group to become responsible 

for the whole process, from the forest to the finished 

product in the marketplace. Their heightened 

awareness of the value and benefit of these natural 

resources is improving theirs lives today, and will 

continue to do so in the future,” emphasizes Tasso 

Acevedo, Deputy Director of the Forest Policy Unit 

for Brazil´s National Forest Program. 

The program provides environmental as well as social 

benefits. Tasso Acevedo and Rubens Gomes, 

school director, conceived the project with the goal 

of extending the forest resource and promoting 

the use of lesser known FSC-certified woods that 

have the same performance characteristics as mahogany 

and cedar. By creating value for the use of 

these lesser-known species of FSC-certified wood, 

consumption pressures are spread over a greater 

number of trees per hectare, reducing the need for 

further encroachment into the forest. 

Rubens Gomes summarizes his work in the following 

way, “Certification not only gives us an entrance 

to the markets, it means a full education for our students, 

professionals and citizens. When we use a 

certified product, we can prove to ourselves and 

the world the responsibility we have in relation to 

the origin of the raw materials we use. At this point 

in time, FSC forest certification represents the best 

possible contribution to our region, one that helps 

us realize a breadth of social, environmental and 

economic benefits for this and future generations.” 



Rubens Gomes, 

Founder and director 

of Lutheria School in 

Amazonia 

Pictures: Students of 

the OELA are working 

on FSC-certified musi- 

cal instruments. 

© Rubens Gomes. 

The finished 

FSC-certified guitar. 

© Uwe Sayer 


Mauricio Voivodic 

forester, Coordinator 

of Forest Certification 

at IMAFLORA, 

responsible for the 

certification in the 

Amazon region for the 

last five years, work- 

ing both with com- 

munities and large 

operations 

Hindered by governance 

A scenery in the Brazilian Amazon 

When world governments and the UN recently recognized 

that deforestation and ecosystem degradation 

contribute substantially to human-caused 

greenhouse gas emissions, it brought significant 

attention to tropical forests, especially the Amazon. 

The conservation of the Amazon is important not 

only at the local and regional levels (to sustain ecosystem 

services and promote the livelihoods of the 

local population; conservation is now also crucial 

at the global level to mitigate climate change. 

Sustainable forest management in the Amazon 

plays a very important role in this goal of conservation, 

since the creation of protected areas is not 

enough to avoid the encroachment of deforestation. 

The forests must be used in an economically 

viable and sustainable way in order to stop the 

conversion of forests to other non-forest economic 

uses. In this context, the FSC certification fits this 

conservation goal as a powerful instrument to ensure 

the economic benefits from sustainable forest 

management. 

Although the above observations might seem 

very obvious to most readers, the situation in the 

Brazilian Amazon is now heading in the opposite 

direction. After a period of intensive growth of the 

FSC certification in the Amazon (2001 – 2005), 

last year was the first with no new certificates for 

forest enterprises 16) . Moreover, in the last 2 years, 

six companies of the timber sector had their FSC 

certificates suspended. On the other hand, illegal 

logging is still responsible for the large majority of 

timber production in the Amazon: in 2005 the environmental 

federal agency (IBAMA) estimated that 

62% of timber production in the region was coming 

from predatory sources 17) (illegal + legal deforestation). 

Although there is no updated estimate, there 

is no reason to believe that this situation has really 

changed – at least not for better. 

Along with sustainable forest management, FSC 

certification in the Brazilian Amazon has stagnated. 

The chaotic situation of land tenure and property 

rights in the region is the main bottleneck for 

the implementation of sustainable forest management 

and the expansion of FSC certification. In addition, 

the continuous valorization of the Brazilian 

currency Real in relation to US Dollar reduces the 

incentives for exports and steers the sector to the 

domestic market, where the demand for FSC wood 

is lower. 

An institutional change in the land tenure regulation 

in December 2004 18) presented the forestry 

sector in the Amazon with a predictable and very 

serious problem: most of the timber has been 

produced on unclaimed land, without any formal 

property recognition other than the so called “possession 

titles”. Before this regulation, possession 

titles were accepted for the licensing of forest management 

plans, but as from December 2004 those 

titles were no longer valid. This “simple” change 

resulted in a very difficult situation, since there is 

not enough private land with property land titles for 

the timber production in the Amazon: only 4% of 

the total area is private. 

The Brazilian Forest Service, created in March 

2006 with the approval of the Forestry Concession 

Law, is deeply engaged in overcoming this situation. 

The forestry concession system has been 

presented as the only alternative to solve the land 

tenure issue. The approved concession law is a 

result of the participation of different stakeholders 

involved in the forestry sector, including representatives 

of local communities, environmentalists, 

NGOs and timber companies. Transparency and 

public participation during the different stages of 

the implementation of the law was an innovative 

step. The technical criteria for harvesting operations 

that the concessions will have to follow are 

expected to be very strict and in some aspects are 

very close to the FSC Principles and Criteria. The 

problem is that the implementation of the concession 

law is not an easy process in a country where 

some strong economic and political sectors still 

benefit from illegal logging and deforestation. The 

implementation is taking much more time than it 

was expected and maybe more time than the forestry 

sector can wait. 

Until then, timber companies find little or no security 

for new investments in sustainable forest 

management or FSC certification. This is a situation 

where FSC certification finds its limits. In the 

absence of some basic governance conditions 

- such as property and harvesting rights – FSC 

certification may fail to be effective and will thus be 

hindered in playing a role as a conservation tool for 

tropical forests. 


The Brazilian Amazon 

Challenges for FSC 

Logging in natural forests is vital to the fragile economy 

of the Brazilian Amazon. As the third major 

Amazonian economic activity in 2004, logging generated 

a total income of US$ 2.3 billion and 400,000 

jobs, representing 5% of all formal regional jobs. 

However, logging in Brazil is predatory, extensive, 

and depletes large extents of forests in an accelerated 

manner due to the infrequent implementation 

of sound forest management practices. Logging 

leads to the conversion of forests to ranches, agriculture 

and other uses since the extraction of high 

value species (mahogany, ipa cumaru, jatoba and 

massaranduba), and finances the construction of 

roads which increases access to new areas previously 

unreachable. In 2007, more than 1.1 million 

hectares of forests were logged according to 

data from Inpe (i.e., the Brazilian spatial research 

agency). This brings the total deforested area of the 

Certified Area (ha) 

Amazon up to 73 million hectares, an area greater 

than Belgium and the Netherlands combined. As of 

February 2008, according to data from FSC Brazil, 

3.27 million hectares of FSC-certified forests in the 

Brazilian Amazon are concentrated in the hands 

of 28 company or community forest enterprises. 

Almost half of this area (48%) is FSC-certified for 

NTFP production, while companies certified for 

timber production represent 37%, communities 

harvesting timber 1%, and forest plantations 14% 

(Figure 1). Unfortunately, certified areas are able 

to supply less than 3% of the demand for wood 

from the Amazonian sector. While certified enterprises 

represents less than 1% of the companies 

operating in the Amazon, as we can see in Figure 

1, certification for timber production has apparently 

stabilized in recent years. 

FM companies FM communities FM for NTFPs harvesting Forest plantations 

3.500.000,00 

3.000.000,00 

2.500.000,00 

2.000.000,00 

1.500.000,00 

1.000.000,00 

500.000,00 

0,00 

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 

Year 

Figure 1. Evolution of the FSC in the Brazilian Amazon, 1997-2007 19) 



Marco Lentini 

Imazon, Brazil. 

Coordinating a 

research team to 

promote and provide 

incentives for the 

adoption of sound 

forest management 

practices by timber 

companies in the 

Brazilian Amazon 


Picture: © FSC 

# of certified operations 

30 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

FM companies FM communities FM for NTFPs harvesting Forest plantations 

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 

Figure 2: Evolution of the FSC certied operations in the Brazilian Amazon, 1997-2007 20) 

Barriers such as land tenure, instability in the 

Amazon, risks of land invasion from illegal loggers 

and land grabbers, high logging transaction costs 

(e.g. the bureaucracy of creating and licensing 

management plans), and the lack of market incentives 

have discouraged forest entrepreneurs from 

investing in certification. However, the forest sector 

in the Brazilian Amazon is currently undergoing 

profound transformation. First, new regulations 

have been established to reinforce control of public 

lands, including the concession of public forests for 

timber production. Second, the forest administration 

is decentralizing, while the Federal Agency is 

transferring its responsibilities to state agencies. 

Third, significant advances have been made in 

the monitoring of deforestation and illegal logging 

through remote sensing techniques. Fourth, there 

is a consensus that transparency and independent 

participation in government actions is crucial 

to diminishing the widespread bribery and illegality 

in the forest sector. In this context, certification 

can play a major role in promoting independent 

improvement of management practices and timber 

production monitoring, helping to stabilize the 

forestry industry. Certification can also be largely 

expanded in public forests harvested within timber 

concessions, since entrepreneurs can benefit 

from a stable environment where they can invest 

in good practices. Public insistence on independent 

monitoring and greater demand for responsibly 

managed forest products are key to the success of 

these new regulations. 

30 | footprints FSCTrademark © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C. (FSC-SECR-0012) 

Year

FSC and the brazil nuts 

FSC-certified cosmetics 

Less than two years ago, the Baú Indigenous 

Territory of the Kayapo Nation in the Amazonian 

Basin was granted FSC certification on an area 

of 1 million ha. Thus it became one of the largest 

FSC certified forest areas in the world. The Kayapo 

communities harvest the brazil-nut (Berthollethia 

excelsa) and extract its oil, in an activity that is part 

of their ancestors’ traditions. 

The extraction project and management plan were 

developed by the Kayapo communities and aimed 

to interfere minimally with their customs, preserving 

traditional parties such as celebrations related 

to denomination, women (me˜nirebiôk), men 

(me˜mybiôk), land turtle (kaprãôk), hunting expeditions 

and others that the Kayapo people maintain 

and present in a fascinating way. 

Today the brazil-nut oil produced by the Kayapo 

is supplied to Brazilian cosmetics industries that, 

having developed refining technologies, sell the 

product to major international companies. For the 

Kayapo, this is a source of great pride because 

their relationship does not depend on intermediaries, 

and the FSC oil is in high demand. This is a 

significant change from the past when not even the 

Kayapo themselves could imagine extracting riches 

from their forest. 

Facing this scenario, when we look inside the 

Kayapo society, we can point out some very positive 

impacts brought by the FSC certification. The main 

impact lies in the fact that the Bau indigenous community 

halted mining activities. The activity divided 

the community because only a small group handled 

the money. Today, with the brazil-nut project, the 

situation is very different – the whole community 

develops rules and takes control, with all families 

participating and gaining economic benefits. 

In terms of social impacts, individuals that have 

less prominence in the Kayapo culture – such as 

single women and handicapped people – can be 

part of the project, with many opportunities to give 

opinions, and work and manage production areas. 

Old people regain their significance since they can 

teach the younger ones about the secrets of surviving 

in the forest and the care that must be taken 

during harvesting. Most importantly, they can revive 

old myths practically forgotten by the Kayapo 

society. 

It may look like western ideology, but the FSC system 

knew how to connect with the cultural complexity 

of the Kayapo people. They now can visualize 

the certification of more forest areas in the Xingu 

basin, bringing the positive impacts to other communities, 

which can already be observed when we 

look at the social, economic and environmental 

situation of the contemporary Brazilian Amazon. 



Luis Carlos 

da Silva Sampai 

Biologist 

post-graduated by 

University of Cuiabá 

(Mato Grosso, Brazil) 

FSC certified 

cosmetics 

© FSC/ Katerina 

Germanis 

Picture right: 

Young Kayapó is 

cooking the shredded 

brazil nuts. Kaypós 

are controlling the dry- 

ing of the brazil nuts 

Picture far right: 

Harvest of brazil nuts 

© Luis Carlos 

da Silva Sampai 


Rosie Teasdale 

Marketing Officer 

for FSC UK 

Rosies main priority 

is to raise awareness 

and understanding of 

the FSC logo amongst 

the British public. 

Picture: 

Penelope obscura in 

CENIBRA eucalyptus 

plantations. 

© CENIBRA 

Eucalyptus plantations - 

More than just cash crops? 

CENIBRA (Celulose Nipo Brasileira S.A.) is a 

Brasilian-Japanese pulp producing company, running 

its operations in 48 counties in Brasil and 

exploiting an overall area of 247.672 hectares, of 

which 123.033 ha are eucalyptus plantings. In 2007 

CENIBRA marketed around 1.133.788 thousand 

tons of pulp mainly to foreign markets 21) . CENIBRA 

was granted FSC certification in June 2005. The 

company is committed to environmental conservation 

and the region’s development by adopting an 

ethical and respectful approach in its relationship 

with customers, communities, shareholders, suppliers 

and employees. Thus in 2007 they received 

the Annual Balance Sheet award 2007 as the best 

company in the Pulp and Paper industry. 

The forest and wildlife monitoring, required by 

FSC, enables CENIBRA to take stewardship and 

environmental preservation measures, such as the 

enrichment of native reserves and reintroduction 

of birds in danger of extinction. CENIBRA has carried 

out a number of environmental actions in buffer 

strips located along water streams, lakes and 

springs. The recovery of these natural ecosystems 

involves planting native species seedlings and the 

protection of existing vegetation. The company 

keeps these areas under permanent surveillance 

in order to prevent forest fires, cattle treading and 

capture of wild animals, thus ensuring the necessary 

conditions for environmental recovery. 

A number of procedures must be adopted to integrate 

the eucalyptus trees to the natural environment, 

while keeping, or even fostering, the biodiversity 

in the planted areas. This can be achieved 

through technical planning, creation of natural 

vegetation corridors for wildlife, enriching planting 

in preservation areas and adopting practices that 

ensure the entire system’s long term future. 

Native woods are maintained and form part of the 

legal reserve areas. Water springs are also protected. 

Surveys carried out on CENIBRA’s land found 

in excess of 300 species of plants cohabiting with 

eucalyptus plantations, adding to the evidence of 

the production system’s complexity and diversity. 

Animals use the eucalyptus planted areas to build 

nests and to look for food. 


Picture: 

CENIBRA eucalyptus 

plantations in Brasil 

© CENIBRA 

In the region of Cocais, dusky-legged guan couples 

were found in nests in eucalyptus plantations. 

According to Brazil’s Environmental Agency´s official 

list, this species is in danger of extinction. 

Its scientific name is Penelope obscura and it is 

known in Brazil as Jacuguaçu or Jacuaçu. It lives 

in secondary woods, brushwoods, plantations and 

riverside gallery forests. It feeds on fruits, sleeves, 

sprouts, grains and insects The Jacuaça bird has 

e\special preference for the fruits of the palm hear 

tree. Upon finding the nests, the workers immediately 

stopped the operations in the area until the 

nestlings were ready to leave their nests. 

CENIBRA preserves 1.5 hectares for every 2 hectares 

of eucalyptus plantation, totalling 95,000 

hectares of protected native vegetation. In addition, 

with the aim of improving these areas’ environmental 

quality, the company has implemented 

a biodiversity enrichment program, which includes 

planting more than 70,000 native species seedlings 

every year. In excess of 200,000 native species 

seedlings have already been planted over an extension 

of 30 km on the banks of Doce River. 

For Paulo Henrique de SouzaDantas of CENIBRA 

the maintenance of the FSC certificate “motivates 

us towards continuous improvement of our forest 

management good practices, being a way to demonstrate 

to society our social and environmental 

responsibility.” 

Tigerprint uses paper made from CENIBRA’s 

FSC certified Eucalyptus to make greeting cards 

for Marks and Spencer. Lauren Orme, Marks and 

Spencer´s Sustainable Raw Material Manager explains 

their commitment: “All of the wood that we 

use is either FSC certified, or made using recycled 

materials. This will not only assist in protecting one 

of the world’s most precious resources - the forest 

- but will assist in reducing the amount of waste 

unnecessarily sent to landfill. This year, 60 million 

Christmas cards will be made using FSC certified 

board which is a very exciting achievement for our 

business.” 




Uwe Sayer 


of the FSC Working 

Group Germany 

Plantation certification 

Credibility and market demand 

Plantation forestry is one of the most controversial 

issues discussed among forest experts worldwide. 

There are controversial disputes concerning the 

size of many plantations, use of exotic species or 

genetically modified trees, use of pesticides, and 

loss of biodiversity and natural ecosystems. The 

growing number of plantations worldwide has led 

to competition for land, leading to a clash of interests 

between different stakeholders. This situation 

shows the significance of stakeholder involvement, 

clarification of landownership, and protection 

of human rights to proper forest and plantation 

management. 

On the other hand, plantations can play a growing 

role in satisfying the increasing global wood and 

paper supply and ease pressure placed on natural 

forests. They can also play an important part in 

restoring deforested land and as carbon sinks to 

mitigate climate change. 

Due to the prevalence of plantations in the global 

timber and paper market, FSC decided early on 

to integrate the certification of plantations into its 

standard. Certification is possible only if the plantation 

has not been converted from natural forests 

and if management of the plantation aims to restore 

the forest to its natural state and preserve remaining 

natural elements. So far over 8 million hectares 

of plantation have been certified under the FSC 

system (April 2008). 

In recent years many stakeholders have voiced 

concerns over FSC plantation standards and pointed 

out the ecological and social consequences 

of plantations, especially in developing countries. 

FSC is undertaking a comprehensive review of its 

policies and standards for plantations. The ultimate 

purpose of the review is to clarify global expectations 

for responsible plantation management and 

improve plantation certification. 

The review process started in 2004 with an international 

stakeholder meeting. As a result a balanced 

policy working group was formed to analyse the issues 

and make recommendations for possible solutions. 

In 2006 a final report was completed (see 

box). 

As a result the policy working group came to the 

conclusion that FSC should invest more in preventing 

risks beforehand, rather than trying to ‘undo’ 

damage once it has been done. This addresses not 

only discussions around plantation certification but 

the certification process as a whole. 

With the recommendations of the policy working 

group in hand, FSC established four international 

technical expert groups dealing with the issues of 

social responsibility, chemicals, ecosystem integrity 

and conversion of plantations. Results of these 

groups have already influenced a current review 

process of FSCs Principles and Criteria. The whole 

plantation review process is expected to be completed 

by 2009. 

Recommendations of the 

policy working group on plantations 

1. Social Issues: FSC should elevate the social compo- 

nents of its system to a level equal to the ecological 

and economic components. 

2. Ecosystem integrity: The level of prevention mitiga- 

tion and remediation efforts taken by forest manag- 

ers shall be appropriate to the level of impact (higher 

impact = higher efforts) 

3. Stakeholder consultation: Stakeholder consulta- 

tion is the key for credible certification. Therefore 

forest managers should apply proactive stakeholder 

engagement and participation. 

4. Pesticides and Chemicals: Managers shall apply 

a best practice integrated chemicals manage- 

ment approach to reduce the use of pesticides and 

chemicals. 

5. Improvement of certification processes: Certification 

processes should be improved in general by 

strengthening the capacity of monitoring bodies 

(certification and accreditation) and to create more 

support to national organisations. This would help to 

create general trust in procedures of certification. 

6. Conversion: FSC shall conduct an analysis of the 

consequences of maintaining the current prohibition 

of certification of plantations that have converted 

natural forests after November 1994 or replacing it 

with other more appropriate measures. 

7. 

One common set of Principles and Criteria: While 

certification of both forests and plantations shall be 

possible, incentives for converting natural forest 

into plantations shall be avoided. This should be 

accomplished by having one comprehensive set of 

Principles and Criteria for forests and plantations 

worldwide. 


Forest certification has been a part of a general 

international trend towards developing market-oriented 

policy instruments, voluntary initiatives and 

involvement of non-governmental actors in environmental 

policy control 22) for more than 15 years. 

Over time it has established itself as one of the 

most influential market drivers for sustainable forest 

management (SFM) in the forestry and wood 

industry sector and is now so broadly applied that 

it is becoming mainstream in many countries. 

German Development Cooperation (DC) has been 

working in forest certification since 1989 and from 

the start has seen it as more than a market instrument. 

DC expects that forest certification helps to 

achieve sustainable development in forested areas 

because it incentivizes and standardizes SFM. 

Moreover, it improves the structural conditions for 

sustainable development by promoting participation, 

binding rules and transparency in the forestry 

and wood industry and beyond. These conditions 

are essential to the goal of DC and SFM: to reduce 

poverty and promote responsible use of the 

forest. 

From a development policy perspective, forest 

certification, specifically, the Forest Stewardship 

Council (FSC), has had several positive impacts 

in the past years on moving towards a sustainable 

use of forest resources in the tropics, and not only 

in terms of increasing the number of certificates. 

An evaluation currently being carried out by the 

German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation 

and Development (BMZ) has determined the impacts 

of voluntary standards related to the activities 

carried out by the German DC. In terms of vol- 

untary initiatives in the forestry sector, two case 

studies were examined: Brazil and China. 

With regard to FSC in particular, positive impacts 

range from the local to the national levels. At the 

local level, inclusion of small landholders into the 

supply chain is an important component to reducing 

poverty in rural areas. At the national level, 

Brazil recently incorporated important aspects of 

SFM into new forest legislation. 

FSC has fostered debate on SFM by serving as a 

forum for dialogue between public institutions, the 

scientific community, private enterprises, NGOs 

and representatives of rural and indigenous communities. 

This dialogue has proven to be extremely 

valuable in promoting fair and sustainable forest 

management in many developing countries. The 

FSC system encourages participation of all relevant 

stakeholders, which is considered the most 

important condition for a legitimate and successful 

SFM certification scheme. 

Though the FSC has clearly proven to be relevant 

in the tropics, the tropical forest area under certification 

is expanding rather slowly. However, the 

FSC is increasingly addressing the challenges presented 

by these regions by certifying large numbers 

of small forest owners and managers through 

group certification and approaches such as Small 

and Low Intensity Forest Management (SLIMF) or 

other stepwise-approaches. This is crucial as another 

step to increasing the influence of FSC in the 

tropics, and it is clearly in line with two of the most 

important goals of the German DC: to reduce poverty 

and conserve forest lands. 



Development through participation 

The multistakeholder approach of the FSC 

3 

Picture: © Tim Lewis/ Handcrafted Films 

Vera Scholz 

Head of the 

Programme Office for 

Social and Ecological 

Standards at German 

Development 

Cooperation (GTZ). 

Her focus lies on 

sustainability initia- 

tives and standards 

in the field of forest 

certification and for- 

est-relevant products, 

agricultural com- 

modities and social 

standards. 

Jenny Rust, 

Junior Professional 

in the Programme 

Office for Social and 

Ecological Standards 

at GTZ since 2007. 

She is working for 

the social standards 

component as well as 

for a Public-Private- 

Partnership between 

the FSC and GTZ. 


Dr. Germar Csapek 

Sales Officer 

for Unique Wood 

in Germany 

Unique Wood 

Help against deforestation in Paraguay 

Paraguay has been deforested at an alarming rate 

in the past few decades. The subtropical eastern 

region of the country only 50 years ago had a forested 

area of about 50%. Due to uncontrolled exploitation 

and the conversion to agricultural landuses, 

this part of the country now has less than 

10% forest cover. If this continues, it is possible that 

forests could be reduced to only cover areas that 

are unsuitable for other uses. 

A number of groups working on different projects 

related to forest management in Paraguay came 

together to stop this process and founded UNIQUE 

Wood in Paraguay and Germany in order to demonstrate 

that it is possible to merge ecological and 

economic objectives and manage a natural forest 

in a sustainable while making a profit. 

Our partner in Paraguay is the landowner GOLON- 

DRINA S.A. Together we formed the “Consorcio 

ForCerPa,” the first and only forest enterprise in 

Paraguay to be FSC certified, in September 2003. 

At the moment UNIQUE-Wood manages about 

2.700 ha of natural forest in eastern Paraguay 

(Departemento Caazapá). With the implementation 

of specially adapted silvicultural treatments it 

is possible to improve even degraded natural forests. 

We can have functional, healthy forests for 

ourselves and for future generations. 

We harvest around 8,000 m³ per year, which is less 

than the annual growth increment. The harvested 

timber is processed into sawn wood and wood flooring 

by small and medium sized local enterprises. In 

this way, the main part of the production process 

remains in the country, and we are able to create 

permanent employment opportunities for qualified 


forest and wood processing workers. Our products 

are sold in Europe and on the local market. By 

forming coalitions united under a single objective, 

we are helping reverse devastating deforestation in 

Paraguay and revitalize local economies. 

The FSC Label on our products allows us to access 

interesting markets in Europe and the US. Prices 

on these markets for our FSC-certified timber allows 

us to cover direct and indirect costs for FSCcertification 

in Paraquay. Direct cost for the FSCcertification 

itself, indirect costs for maintain for 

example safety trainings for our wood workers or 

extra effort for the marketing of lesser known species. 

Without markets for FSC-timber, it would be 

much more difficult, to finance expenses that guarantee 

responsible environmental and social standards 

in our forest enterprises. 

Pictures: 

Left: Forest workers in FSC-certified forests in Paraguay. 

Top: FSC-labelled roundwood in Paraguay. 

© Unique Wood 



„Before forest certification, the people were forced to leave the community 

in search of work. Children were separated from their parents 

for months at a time. The community was almost abandoned. The only 

money we had for education and clothing came from our peanut cash 

crops, which never satisfied the need. But now, with the first forest 

management plan, everything is tranquilo, the people don’t have to 

leave. There is work here in the community and the money comes. 

This was a huge change to our lives. The second year, the community 

filled up with bicycles, and the people no longer had to carry their 

loads on their backs. And now this year, I don’t know many new motos 

I’ve seen. And because of the management plan, the forest will never 

end.” 

Chief Ambrosio Llabo, Community of Cururú 


Uwe Sayer 


of the FSC Working 

Group Germany 

Conclusions 

Does FSC fulfil its promises? 

FSC started as an idea in the early nineties. Today, 

it is the leading forestry certification scheme with 

global support from companies, NGOs, unions, 

scientists, individuals and politicians. But growth 

rates and FSC certified area are not necessarily 

explicit indicators for success or performance of 

value propositions. 

This brochure collects and summarizes examples 

of FSC-certified forestry under often very difficult 

circumstances. Our aim was not to write a marketing-booklet 

for FSC that tries to persuade the 

public to ask for more FSC-products. Our aim is to 

let stakeholders tell their story and experience with 

FSC. Every reader should build his own opinion 

depending upon what is important to each specific 

reader. 

It is in the nature of such a fast growing process 

like FSC, that there is criticism about FSC in the 

world. But FSC demonstrates a very transparent 

and open policy that it takes criticism seriously. 

Criticism leads to change and improvement in the 

FSC-standards and systems. 

Excellent examples for this are policy processes 

around the certification of High Conservation 

Value forests and certification of plantations. FSC 

takes hundreds of comments from all sides and 

all aspects into consideration, then improves the 

systems within the chamber-balanced working 

groups. Other examples are the very restricted use 

of pesticides in FSC-certified forests worldwide, or 

dynamic changes in requirements for chain of custody 

certification which led to a concept of controlled 

wood. There within, is an answer to the worlds 

need to avoid commonly unacceptable sources in 

wood products. 

New debates around paper, recycling materials 

and climate change demonstrate that FSC continues 

to strive to be the most rigorous forestry certification 

worldwide by integrating new issues into 

the current systems. 

A key-factor for credibility from the FSC-perspective 

is stakeholder-participation and the attempt to 

build bridges between contrary positions on all aspects 

of forest management and forest protection. 

The fact that there is still an increasing growth in 

membership and support from all various groups 

of stakeholders is a key indicator which demonstrates 

that FSC fulfils its promises to responsible 

forestry. 

Imprint 

Published by FSC Working Group Germany 

Stories without explicit information on the author 

written by members of FSC Working Group Germany 

Status of document: 2009,1.edition 

Reprints only by permission of publisher 

Editors: Erika Müller, Uwe Sayer 

Layout: Volker Maas 

Cover photograph: © FSC Denmark 

Printed by medialogik GmbH, Karlsruhe 

Contact details: 

FSC Working Group Germany 

Postfach 5810 · 79026 Freiburg · Germany 

E-Mail: info@fsc-deutschland.de 


Acknowledgements 

This report is the result of a project that was funded by the Heidehof Stiftung, Germany. We are grateful 

to the donor for making this project and report possible. Sincere thanks are also given to all contributors, 

who supported this brochure with their interesting articles and stories. Special thanks also to Dietrich 

Burger for being a supportive adviser and spin doctor. 

Last but not least we like to thank Corey Brinkman, FSC USA, Loa Dalgaard Worm, FSC Denmark and 

Elke Anders for doing the proofreading and providing us with stories and pictures. 

References and Networks 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

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13. 

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15. 

16. 

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Oroverde – Die Tropenwaldstiftung: www.oroverde.de, visited in May 2008. 

Herkendell, J.; Pretzsch, J. Die Wälder der Erde. Verlag C.H. Beck, München. 

Oroverde – Die Tropenwaldstiftung: www.oroverde.de, visited in May 2008. 

Macqueen, D. et al. (2008): Distinguishing community forest products in the market. Industrial demand for a 

mechanism that brings together forest certification and fair trade. International Institute for Environment and 

Development. ISBN: 978-1-84369-682-7. 

FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: www. Fao.org/forestry, visited in February 2008. 

Constanza, R. et al. (2007): Quality of life: an approach integrating opportunities, human needs, and subjective well- 

being. Ecological economics 61: 267-276. 

Newsom, D. & Hewitt, D., TREES Program, Rainforest Alliance (2005): The Global Impacts of SmartWood 

Certification. 

Hughell, D. & Butterfield, R., Rainforest Alliance (2008): Impact of FSC Certification on Deforestation and the 

Incidence of Wildfires in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. 

Carrera et al. (2006): Forest certification in Guatemala. In B. Cashore, F. Gale, E. Meidinger and D. Newsom, eds. 

Confronting sustainability: forest certification in developing and transitioning countries, PP. 363-406. 

New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. 

Houghton, R. A.; Tropical deforestation as a source of greenhouse gas emissions. In: Tropical deforestation and 

climate change / edited by Paulo Moutinho and Stephan Schwartzman. -- Belém - Pará - Brazil : IPAM - Instituto de 

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Hirschberger, P. (2008): Illegaler Holzeinschlag und Deutschland. Published by WWF Germany 

Saunders, J. & Nussbaum, Ruth (2008): Forest Governance and Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and 

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Seneca Creek Associates, LLC; Wood Resources International, LLC (2004): “Illegal” Logging and Global Wood 

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FAO (2006): FAO Forest Resources Assessment 2005. 

Spilsbury, M.J. (2005): The sustainability of forest management: assessing the impact of CIFOR criteria and 

indicators research. CIFOR Impact Paper No 4. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR): Bogor, 

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With exception to a small community (4 ha) certified in 2007 for the management of palm trees leafs for handcraft 

production. 

Lentini, M.; Pereira, D; Celentano, D & Pereira, R. 2005. Fatos florestais da Amazônia 2005. Belém: Imazon. 138p. 

Portaria conjunta n0 10 de 10 de Dezembro de 2004, INCRA e MDA; 

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Cenibra (2008): www.cenibra.com.br, visited in May 2008. 

22. 

Pattberg 2004; Cashore et al. 2004 




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