Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) are becoming synonymous with the timber trade. Most people handling timber on a daily basis will have heard of them and yet SME builders and developers, the general public, architects and even local authority specifiers still seem to be largely ignorant of the facts.
FSC developed in the early 1990s, galvanised from concerns over tropical deforestation and the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. PEFC followed a few years later, evolving from a pan European rival to FSC to become a global competitor. Whilst FSC still has the march on PEFC in terms of appeal and market presence, PEFC extends to more of the world’s forests. And this competition IS a good thing, despite what many merchants and manufacturers might tell you! Whilst the differences between FSC and PEFC can be a bit academic, I believe that ultimately they are striving towards the same end. With little more than 5% of global forests certified, pressure and competition needs to keep growing, to secure and develop renewable, sustainable forest resources into the future.
FSC and PEFC can be expensive – and why not? Illegal clearfelling of virgin forest and selling the timber on the black market where none of the value ends up in the hands of the local people is far cheaper than having a management plan which considers the forest as a whole – the timber, the wildlife, the landscape, the water, the future – trained and equipped workers who earn a decent wage and selective felling of tree species for maximum yield whilst conserving long term productivity!
At Ligna we are foresters by training and businessmen at heart. We want us all to use only certified timber but also understand that sometimes the price is more important than the cost. Striking the balance, especially in today’s economic climate, is a tricky path to walk. We need to secure the deal but also to explain to our customers that certified timber from a properly regulated and independently verified forest and supply chain is not a luxury, but a necessity.
Early in 2013 new European legislation comes in to force which will make it illegal for European companies to import timber that is illegally harvested in the country of origin. You may need to read that twice…! Notwithstanding how that is going to be enforced, here and across Europe, the general trend is towards strengthening forest management to ensure long-term supplies. And we can all play our part.
Implementing supply chain control through adopting Chain of Custody is actually pretty straightforward. Both PEFC and FSC offer different systems within their overall approaches and they can always be adapted to fit the needs of businesses along the supply chain. In nearly 10 years, working with forest owners, importers, merchants, manufacturers and retailers, from blue chips to one man bands, in timber and fibre, I have yet to come across a company that couldn’t get sorted. Simple and effective systems, married with existing management tasks (or in some cases starting from scratch) are all that is required. If it takes more than a couple of hours a week, something is going wrong!
We can, and do, make a difference. As demand increases, so suppliers in to our markets need to up their game. Look around at the shelves of Travis Perkins, B&Q and the supermarkets and increasingly you’ll see the FSC and PEFC logos. But it doesn’t have to be just the biggest players – everyone involved in the trade can and should get Chain of Custody certified.
