The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has suspended trading certificates in Russia and Belarus and will “block wood sourcing” from the countries for as long as “the armed violence continues in Ukraine”, it said on 8 March.
The decision is effective from 8 April 2022, the FSC said.
As a result, “wood and forest products from Russia and Belarus cannot be used in FSC products or be sold as FSC-certified anywhere in the world as long as the armed violence continues”, it said.
FSC will give forest management certificate holders in Russia the option of keeping this accreditation but will give “no permission to trade or sell FSC-certified timber”, to continue to protect forests in Russia.
The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) said that all wood materials from the two countries would be considered “conflict timber” and could not be used in PEFC-certified products.
PEFC announced that all Russian and Belarusian material for which the due diligence system (DDS) has not been applied for after 2 March 11:55 am eastern standard time is considered conflict timber and cannot be used in the PEFC chain of custody, or PEFC-certified or controlled sources.
Russian and Belarusian material already in storage within and outside both countries without the approved DDS will not be considered PEFC-certified.
According to PEFC’s website, 31,976,108 hectares (ha) of forest in Russia and 9,022,400ha in Belarus were PEFC certified as of 31 December — 12.5pc of the global total. There were also 104 companies in Russia and 110 in Belarus that held PEFC chain of custody certification, or 1.7pc of the global total.
Suspension of FSC and PEFC certifications will have a large impact on wood pellet and chip flows from Russia. Accreditation from either is a precondition for the sustainable biomass program (SBP) certification required by almost all pellet and chip consumers in northwest European — Russia’s largest market for pellets.
Source: Argus Media (2022)