Canada is a world leader in third-party sustainable forest-management certification. Only 10% of the world’s forests are independently certified and 40% of that land is located in Canada, an example of the country’s commitment to environmental stewardship. British Columbia itself has 14% of the world’s certified forests.  But after a forest is certified, a chain-of-custody accounting mechanism can be used to track raw materials from certified forests and other sources through each manufacturing stage until the resulting product reaches the store shelf or the end-user. In addition, it can be used to track characteristics such as the proportion of recycled content.

In Canada there are three third-party certification systems for sustainable forest management. These programs deal with issues as diverse and important as the biological diversity of the forest, use of chemicals, protecting water sources, and reforestation, to name a few.

While the three programs used in British Columbia have differences, they all promote principles, criteria and objectives that are viewed as the basis of sustainable forest management around the world.  All three have balanced governance, with Boards representing environmental, social and economic interests, and all three revise their standards regularly through an open public process.  B.C. has adopted an inclusive approach and accepts all internationally recognized third-party forest certification programs.

The CSA, FSC and SFI programs all depend on third-party audits where independent auditors measure the planning, procedures, systems and performance of on-the-ground forest operations against the predetermined standard.

It’s good to be familiar with all of the systems available.