Minshan newsletter:
Sept-Oct 2005

July-August 2005



WWF and IKEA Cooperation on Forest Projects - China project

Systematic Conservation Planning of the Forests in the Upper Yangtze (FUY)

Forest Policy Study

Minshan Initiative

Projects:
Working Group on Forest Certification in China
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Working Group on Forest Certification in China

The world's natural forests are depleted, and remaining areas are increasingly threatened. This erodes economic and cultural wealth of nations, including China, as biodiversity, watersheds, and long-term livelihoods are wasted for short-term profits benefiting relatively few. In many countries, the forest industry is the main driving force behind this loss. Yet logging need not destroy forests; if run well they may promote their retention. If timber is harvested sustainably, the forest should remain forever. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) - an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization - was founded in 1993. Its mission: to develop a certification system that certifies wood as sourced from well-managed sources, identified by reassured consumers via easily recognized labels. Producers and buyers thereby support good forestry through their purchases and investments.

In China, WWF, the Chinese government's Academy of Science and others have been working together since 1999 to set up a forest certification system, with private sector groups - including the international buyer Ikea and others - helping to bring the process forward. However, there are very few people who know what forest certification is, and at present there are no forests that have been certified under any scheme. Nevertheless, due to the international market place, there are currently nearly 27 wood processing companies in China that have been certified for chain-of-custody (CoC) under the FSC scheme. (Under CoC, Chinese companies import certified wood with which they manufacture products.) Although their prime objective is to ensure market access of their forest products in the international market place, this has the potential to eventually lead to certification for forest management performance as well.

Forest certification offers China a means to move beyond the 1998 logging ban in natural forests in much of the country, and toward the establishment of a sustainable domestic forest industry. It is also a means to slow China's rapidly growing environmental footprint caused by demand for unsustainably sourced timber from other countries, hastening forest destruction in those nations.

Objective

To protect forests by:
  • Promoting the development of certification standards appropriate to the Chinese context and compatible with FSC
  • Promoting the development of models and market for forest certified products in China
  • Minimizing the negative impacts of the logging ban outside of China, with the aim of at least 50% of all imported timber coming from certified forests
Current status
  • In 1999, the China State Forestry Administration, the World Bank Alliance, the Ford Foundation, UNDP, and WWF co-sponsored a forest certification workshop in Beijing. Participants included senior State Forestry Administration officials, forest managers from around China, civil servants, academics, timber traders and manufacturers. One Shanghai-based company applied for an FSC certificate within months of the event.


  • In May 2001, the first meeting of the 'Working Group on Forest Certification in China' was held in Beijing, with the State Forest Administration as supervisor, and the Sustainable Forestry Research Center, Chinese Academy of Forestry, and WWF responsible for the day to day management. The group discussed developing forest certification policies and raising awareness. In Dec 2001, a series of workshops aimed at forest managers were held by the Working Group on Forest Certification.


  • Currently, WWF is raising awareness in China through the publication of a newsletter and brochure on forest certification. An East Asia Pacific Forest Certification website, that will include China specific guidelines in both Chinese and English, is in preparation.
Partners

State Forestry Administration, the Sustainable Forestry Research Center, Chinese Academy of Forestry.

Donor

Forest certification workshops and the Working Group on Forest Certification are supported in part by the Ford Foundation and the WWF-World Bank Alliance.

For more information on forest certification, see WWF International and Forest World, which contains detailed information on China's Chain of Custody companies.