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About Certification
 Growing environmental awareness and consumer demand for more
socially responsible businesses helped third-party forest certification
emerge in the 1990s as a credible tool for communicating the
environmental and social performance of forest operations.
There are many potential users of certification, including: forest
managers, investors, environmental advocates, business consumers of
wood and paper and individuals.
With forest certification, an independent organization develops
standards of good forest management, and independent auditors issue
certificates to forest operations that comply with those standards.
This certification verifies that forests are well-managed—as defined by
a particular standard—and ensures that certain wood and paper products
come from responsibly managed forests.
This rise of certification
led to the emergence of several different systems throughout the world.
As a result, there is no single accepted forest management standard
worldwide, and each system takes a somewhat different approach in
defining standards for sustainable forest management.
Third-party forest certification is an important tool for those
seeking
to ensure that the paper and wood products they purchase and use come
from forests that are well-managed and legally harvested. Incorporating
third-party certification into forest product procurement practices can
be a centerpiece for comprehensive wood and paper policies that
include factors such as the protection of sensitive forest values,
thoughtful material
selection and efficient use of products.
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