Forest certification—an assurance of conservation in forestry
Nature conservation comes naturally to family-enterprise forestry, where the tradition is deeply rooted and is passed down from genera-tion to generation. What changes is the way in which the forest and, equally important, conservation are managed.The industrial forestry cooperatives in Sweden have long since pursued a strategy for encouraging their members to continually improve conservation in their forests. The forestry cooperatives have collaborated in the development of increasingly effective instruments for conservation in forestry: Green forest-management plans, educa-tion and training in conservation theory and practice, conservation contracts and eco management systems. The latest development is the forest-certification scheme, which is largely a product of the collabora-tion between the forestry cooperatives and the timber-purchasing sawmills.
Forest certification—assurance and credibility
Forest certification provides an assurance that the forest has been man-aged in accordance with a standard for conservation. The customers of the industrial forestry cooperatives and sawmills are environmentally aware and are imposing ever stricter demands on the provenance of the products they buy: the products must come from sustainable man-aged forests in which sound conservation is practised.That is why the industrial forestry cooperatives and the sawmills have been working so hard together to produce a national standard for Pan-European Forest Certification. The watchwords here are cred-ibility and confidence. It is hoped that forest certification will make our products both easier to sell and more attractive than alternative materials to wood, and also that it will help to increase the market share of our products. Forest certification is a voluntary, private-sector initiative.