Growing environmental awareness and consumer demand for more socially responsible businesses helped third-party forest certification emerge in the 1990s as a credible tool for communicating the environmental and social performance of forest operations.

There are many potential users of certification, including: forest managers, investors, environmental advocates, business consumers of wood and paper and individuals. With forest certification, an independent organization develops standards of good forest management, and independent auditors issue certificates to forest operations that comply with those standards. This certification verifies that forests are well-managed as defined by a particular standard and ensures that certain wood and paper products come from responsibly managed forests.

This rise of certification led to the emergence of several different systems throughout the world. As a result, there is no single accepted forest management standard worldwide, and each system takes a somewhat different approach in defining standards for sustainable forest management.

Third-party forest certification is an important tool for those seeking to ensure that the paper and wood products they purchase and use come from forests that are well-managed and legally harvested. Incorporating third-party certification into forest product procurement practices can be a centerpiece for comprehensive wood and paper policies that include factors such as the protection of sensitive forest values, thoughtful material selection and efficient use of products.

Forest certification assures consumers that the forest products they purchase are derived from operations that manage forests to a pre-determined set of environmental, social and economic standards. The process of forest certification involves the interactions of three independent entities.

The certification organization is governed by a diverse set of interests and works with a broad array of stakeholders to establish a set of standards for the management of forests and the tracking of raw material throughout the supply chain. The coordinating organization is typically modeled after a number of principles put forth by the International Organization for Standardization principles provide guidance on governance, standards development, assessing the qualifications of certifiers, and the procedures for verifying that practices meet the certification standard. The Forest Stewardship Council (SFC), the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the American Tree Farm System (ATFS) are the largest and best known certification organizations within the United States.

The auditor/certifier is the organization that has the technical expertise for verifying that on-the-ground practices conform to the certification standard. Certification systems rely on accredited auditors to carry out these verifications. Auditors are evaluated to ensure they have the technical capacity to objectively evaluate forestry operations.

The forest products company or land management agency is responsible for understanding and carrying out forest management practices in a manner that meets or exceeds the standards of the certification system. Many certification systems also have mechanisms for tracking forest products through the supply chain. Therefore, companies such as furniture, window and door manufacturers that purchase and sell forest products can verify that their products use raw material derived from responsibly managed forests.

The information presented above was mostly taken from the Forest Certification Resource Center website [www.metafore.org/index.php?p=contact_the_fcrc&s=147 ]. I would suggest you visit this and other related websites for different perspectives on forest certification around the world.

Certification on State Forests:

The Indiana Division of Forestry is currently undergoing assessment for the initial audits to pursue forest certification of the 150,000 acre state forest system under both the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) programs. These systems are the premier programs for such certifications in North America Certification on Classified Forests:

Unlike the State Forest System where actual designated areas will be certified, the process for the Classified Forest Program will be a group certification of the program’s structure, criteria, management recommendations, and monitoring under the American Tree Farm System (ATFS). The primary advantages to the Classified Forest Owner will be the assurance that the program will continue to be evaluated, updated and structured to ensure sustainable forest management and that the products produced from Classified Forest can be marketed as certified. Individual Classified Forest owners will be given the option to forego the benefits and not have their Classified Forest considered part of the group certification if they so choose.

The work of the auditing teams in Indiana, for all three of the certification organizations, is being coordinated by a single contractor, NSF International Strategic Registrations, Ltd. (NSF-ISR). The target for the completion of the forest certification assessments for both the state forest system and the Classified Forest Program is early 2007.