Certification of Forests and commodities: Forest

Stewardship Council, Rain Forest Alliance

P
Pre-work for today’s
class
Mandatory:
1. Explore https://fsc.org/en
2. Case: Sustainable Tea at Unilever, HBR, 9-712-438 – Read carefully
and discuss in groups (remember appendices)

Recommended:

1. FSC Principles and Criteria for Forest Stewardship Standard

(STD):
https://connect.fsc.org/document-centre/documents/resource/392
2. https://connect.fsc.org/document-centre/documents/resource/277

2
Today’s
A genda
• Overview of Forest Certification

• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

• Programme for The Endorsement of

Forest
Certification (PEFC)

• Forest certification in India

• Rainforest Alliance

3
Preliminary Questions for
Reflection
• Why do we need forest certification? What are
the major products that you get from forests?
• What are the different forest uses? Especially, what
about those that do not have well established
markets?
• What are the major sustainability considerations
associated with forests? How are they different
from those associated with eco-labels discussed so
far?
• Who owns (and manages) the world’s forests?
• What is forest management? What kind of
activities does it entail?
• What is sustainable forest management?
4
Sustainable Forest
Management
“The stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way,
and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity,
regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil,
now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and
social functions, at local, national, and global levels,
and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems.” –
UN FAO
Three Pillars of Sustainability
 Creates outcomes that are socially just, ecologically sound
and
economically viable
 Cannot separate,
compartmentalize or
address individually
these pillars
5
 If one pillar is missing, we cannot protect our forests, forest-
Source: https://www.pefc.or
 Forest Certification:
Overview

Source: https://www.sustrana.com/blog/2015/1/28/the-paper-trail-understanding-forest-stewardship- 6
Three types of forest
certification

• Certification for Sustainable Management of

Forests
• Certification of timber and timber products
• Certification of non timber forest products
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Certification of forest
management
• Practices for management of forests and biodiversity
-
Social, Environmental and Economic Impacts
• Well being of local communities including rights of
forest- dependent communities
Scale Intensity Risk
• Size or extent of the Intensity Risk
MU - parts over • Measure of the force, • Likelihood or
which operational severity or strength probability of an
activities take place of the impact of a event with negative
e.g. road building, management activity consequences, and
harvesting or on environmental, also the seriousness
pesticides social or economic of those
• Spatial scale – values consequences
portion • D efined on basis • Should take into
affected each year level of harvest account the inherent
• Low temporal scale within MU vulnerability,
– occurs for short resilience &
period or at long sensitivity to 8
Certification of forest
management

9
 Chain-of-Custody (COC)
Certification
• Certification of Timber and Non Timber Forest Products
– Harvesting
– Logistics
– Processing
– Distribution

Source: https://www.wwpwoo Source: http://allnepaltea.com

dproducts.com/en/pefc-2/ /en/
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Today’s
A genda
• Overview of Forest
Certification
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

• Programme for The Endorsement of

Forest
Certification (PEFC)

• Forest certification in India

• Rainforest Alliance

11
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

You are, we are the Forest Stewardship

Council
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Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
 FSC is an N G O founded in 1993 with
the collaborative efforts of other
NGOs, indigenous groups and
companies
 Supported by NGOs like W W F,
Greenpeace, and businesses like Tetra
Pak, IKEA
 Governed by its Members
 Members are divided into three
different chambers viz. environmental,
social and economic Source:
https://ic.fsc.org/en
 Each chamber has 33.3% voting right
 Each chamber further split into
sub- chambers of global North
and South
 N orth and south have equal rights 13
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

 FSC is a member of ISEAL alliance, a

global association of sustainability
standards

 More than 221 Mha forest area has

Source:
been https://ic.fsc.org/en
 More than
certified by45000
FSC CoC certificates

 More than forest 96,000 ha certified by

FSC
in India

Source: https://www.isealalliance
.org/

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FSC Principles
I. Compliance with Laws
II. Workers Rights and Employment Conditions
III. Indigenous Peoples’ legal and customary rights
IV. Social and economic wellbeing of local communities.
V. Multiple products & services - efficiently manage the range of
multiple products and services to maintain or enhance long term
economic viability and the range of environmental & social
benefits
VI. Maintain, Conserve or restore ecosystem services and
VII. environmental values of the Management Unit
Managementand
VIII. Monitoring Planning
Evaluation of Management Plan
IX. High Conservation Value Forest through applying the
precautionary approach
X. Compliance with the Principles and Criteria

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FSC Criteria

• 1.1 The Organization shall be a legally defined entity

with clear, documented and unchallenged legal
registration, with written authorization from the legally
competent authority for specific activities. (new)
– 1.1.1 Legal registration to carry out all activities within the
scope
of the certificate is documented and unchallenged.
– 1.1.2 Legal registration is granted by a legally competent
authority according to legally prescribed processes.
• 1.2 The Organization shall demonstrate that the legal
status of the Management Unit including tenure and use
rights , and its boundaries, are clearly defined.
https://connect.fsc.org/document-centre/documents/resource/392
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FSC Process for Stakeholder Consultations
• The certification body shall inform the stakeholders identified in
Clause 2.3, above, at least six (6) weeks prior to the start of the
main evaluation site visits:
– a) that an FSC forest evaluation is due to take place;
– b) the start date of the evaluation;
– c) the applicant's name and the location of the forest area to be assessed;
– d) how to acquire a copy of the Forest Stewardship Standard to be used for
the
evaluation;
– e) that the certification body is seeking the views and opinions of stakeholders as
to whether the applicant's forest management complies with the requirements
of the standard;
– f) how stakeholders may contact the certification body in confidence to let the
certification body know of their views and opinions;
– g) that the team will make arrangements to allow stakeholders to meet with
them during the evaluation;
– h) of the existence of the certification body’s mechanisms for resolution of
complaints or disputes;
– i) that the source of any information is kept confidential on request.
https://connect.fsc.org/document-centre/documents/resource/277 17
 FSC Certification
Types

FSC 100% FSC Mixed FSC Recycled

All wood in the FSC-certified

products is from material, Paper or product
sustainably recycled , wood is from
managed forests material, or recycled material
controlled
Wood in Mixedwood.
product cannot
 Illegally harvested
be:
 violation of traditional and civil rights
 high conservation values (HCVs) are
Source: threatened
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https://ic.fsc.org/en 
Companies using FSC

19
 FSC Impacts
 Promoting sustainable
management of forests
in more than 80
countries
 Protection of High
Conservation Value Forest
(HCVF) through
certification
 Checked illegal logging in
the Russian Far East and
Romania
 Supported market inclusion
of smallholders across
Livaeco by Birla
south- east Asia
Cellulose
 D evelopment of FSC
national standards
 Some of the world’s largest
corporations like 20
Today’s
A genda
• Overview of Forest
Certification

• Forest Stewardship Council

• Programme
(FSC) for The Endorsement of
Forest Certification (PEFC)

• Forest certification in
India

• Rainforest Alliance

21
Programme for The Endorsement of Forest
Certification (PEFC)
 PEFC is an international non-profit, non-
governmental organization formed in 1999
 Largest third-party certification of forests
 Governance through members
 Certification of
• Forests area:304 m illion ha
• Forest owners:750,000
• Companies CoC:19,800

 Member of Influential International organisations

Source: https://www.pefc
.org/ 22
Business Benefits of forest
certification
• New Markets-International Trade

• High Revenues ( Price Premium 15-25%)

• Brand Building

• Strong Relationship with Customers

• Contribution for Society and

Environment

23
Today’s
A genda
• Overview of Forest Certification

• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

• Programme for The Endorsement of

Forest
Certification (PEFC)
• Forest certification in India

• Rainforest
Alliance

24
Pre-work for next
class
Mandatory:
1. Case: Sustainable Tea at Unilever, HBR, 9-712-438 – Read carefully
and discuss in groups (remember appendices)
2. https://www.iisd.org/articles/growing-tea-sustainably

Recommended:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea_mard7Fag&t=87s
2. https://www.rainforest-
alliance.org/business/certification/how-does-the- rainforest-alliance-
work-with-the-forest-stewardship-council/

25
Case - Sustainable Tea at Unilever: Key Questions to
discuss and debate
• What are the sustainability challenges in the global tea
industry?

• Why did Unilever decide to procure100% of it’s tea raw

material
from sustainable sources?

• Is rainforest alliance certified tea successful for Unilever ?

Why
or why not?

• What are the issues and challenges of developing markets

such as India? Should Unilever pursue certified tea in these
markets?

• Devise strategies for Unilever to pursue its economic 26

THANKS!!

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