Forest certification has emerged as one of the tools to promoting the
well-being of forests. From its beginnings in the 1990s, third-party
certification of sustainable forest management practices has spread
throughout the world. With several prominent systems available today,
Metafore developed profiles describing different certification systems.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
offers internationally accepted guidance for establishing and
maintaining a credible certification system. The ISO profile offers
insight into the aspects forest certification systems must address for
developing a viable system.
There are several certification systems relevant to the North American marketplace:
 |
The American Tree Farm System is a program for small, private, non-industrial landowners (family forest landowners). ATFS certifies contiguous parcels from 10 - 20,000 acres and was endorsed by PEFC in August of 2008.
|
|
| The Canadian Standards Association
is a national standard for sustainable forest management and tracking
and labeling certified material. It covers operations in Canada. |
|
|
The Forest Stewardship Council is
an international system covering forest management practices and the
tracking and labeling of certified products and paper products with
recycled content. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
While certification is intended as a tool to
enhance forest management
practices throughout the world, to date most certified forestry
operations are located in Europe and North America. A significant
barrier for many forest managers in developing countries is that they
lack the capacity to undergo a certification audit and maintain
operations to a certification standard. Recognizing this situation, the
step-wise approach to certification was developed to help forest
management companies in developing countries work toward certifying
their operations.
