• SCA is Europe’s largest forest owner and a major timber, pulp and paper manufacturer.
• A long-standing member of FSC, it announced its intention to temporarily pause its FSC Forest Management certification in Sweden starting June 1, 2025, due to a series of systemic challenges it sees within the current FSC framework.
  • Still supports FSC: Although SCA is leaving the Swedish FSC system on June 1st, they will remain a member, keep its Controlled Wood and Chain of Custody certifications, and maintain Forest Management certification in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
  • Hopefully temporary: The pause is intended to protect SCA’s ability to meet climate and sustainability goals, not to leave FSC entirely.
  • To prompt dialogue: SCA is calling for a meeting with FSC and stakeholders in Frankfurt to work on solutions collaboratively.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification has been a vital component of sustainable forest management in Poland for over 25 years. Until recently, approximately two-thirds of the total forest area of 9.2 million hectares in the country were FSC-certified. The certified forests are managed by the Regional Directorates of State Forests (RDSF) and two Forest Experimental Stations under the University of Poznań.

Despite initiating dialogue in November 2022 between FSC International and Polish State Forests, six Regional Directorates of State Forests (RDSFs), representing an area of roughly 2 million hectares, have opted to discontinue FSC certification in their respective regions. The affected regions include:

• Gdansk (FSC-certified area: 303,938 ha) - expired
• Torun (FSC-certified area: 456,447 ha) - expired
• Poznan (FSC-certified area: 419,535 ha) - certificate expired on 4 April, 2023
• Warsaw (FSC-certified area: 194,960 ha) - certificate expired on 9 April, 2023
• Radom (FSC-certified area: 325,074 ha) - certificate expired on 1 May, 2023
• Pila (FSC-certified area: 362,770 ha) - recertification granted on 10 March, 2023; license agreement was valid until May 31, 2023

The collaboration between Polish foresters and FSC has enabled many Polish companies to grow their market reach through exporting their FSC certified products to regional and international companies. Today, Polish companies are among global leaders when it comes to the production of furniture, doors, windows, panels, and other wood-based products. There are currently 2,500 FSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certificates in Poland, making it one of the top countries for FSC CoC globally.

Kim Carstensen, Director General of FSC International, says: “We will reinforce our engagement and presence in Poland to ensure that we have a solid foundation for responsible forest management now and in the long term. We will continue to promote sustainable practices throughout the country in line with our values, while safeguarding its global credibility”.

FSC acknowledges the significant implications for certified supply in the country coupled with the existing shortages as a consequence of the Ukraine war. To address this issue, FSC is actively working alongside partners and members to develop strategic solutions to fill the supply gap.

• According to scientists, the deforestation of Brazil has been driven by a deliberate misinformation campaign that has systematically weakened environmental protection laws.
• It has been claimed that the research team from Embrapa Territorial (ET), the branch of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), a federal enterprise for agricultural research and development have used various tactics to dismantle environmental protections in Brazil, such as manufacturing uncertainty in relation to consensual science; making claims that appear as scientific facts but that contradict scientific consensus; and making false claims about scientific credentials.

Conservationists attribute the improvement of the situation to an increase in monitoring efforts, as well as greater scrutiny of palm oil producers operating in the landscape by brands and buyers with zero-deforestation commitments.

The National Forest Stewardship Standard (NFSS) for Indonesia was published recently after years of development. It applies to all types and scales of forest management, including timber, non-timber forest products and ecosystem services. It will become effective on 1 December 2020. The transition window for FSC-certified forests is twelve months and will last until 30 November 2021.

This report by independent environmental charity Earthsight finds illegal logging in FSC-certified supply chains in Ukraine. Focussed on the Carpathian forests, it found around 100 sites are being felled illegally each spring, when silence periods should protect several endangered animal species including brown bears, wolves and Eurasian lynx. While regulations require Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) before sanitary felling is conducted, no EIAs were found to have been carried out. Evidence sited by Earthsight includes the Ukrainian State Environmental Inspectorate (SEI), local environmental organisations, and research commissioned by WWF Germany.

Earthsight claims this illegal logging has not been picked up in FSC audits because of systematic issues with FSC that go beyond Ukraine: conflicts of interest as auditing bodies are paid by the logging companies they certify; inadequate oversight by Assurance Services International (ASI) which should be holding the auditing bodies to account but is argued to have failed to do so. The report documents a wide array of cases where FSC-certified firms have been accused of illegal logging, clearance of High Conservation Value (HCV) forests, and human rights abuses from all over the world – including in places such as Brazil, China, Congo, Indonesia, Peru, Romania, Russia, Ukraine. Earthsight highlights that FSC has only investigated 13 companies in its 27-year history – 0.02% of the more than 44,000 it has certified.

In response, FSC states it is fully aware of the issues in Ukraine, and insists that whenever illicit acts are identified or reported they are investigated. IKEA says it has started its own investigations, commissioned audits from a 3rd-party independent audit company, asked questions to ASI, and pledges that if any illegal wood is indicated in its product it will take immediate action.

Earthsight’s report focuses on IKEA because, as the biggest buyer of wood in the world, it has the most influence to drive positive change. However, the issues found by Earthsight apply to the publishing industry as much as they do to IKEA. Therefore, the Book Chain Project will further look into Earthsight’s findings and update you as soon as we decide what further action to take.

CDP’s annual A List names the world's most pioneering companies leading on environmental transparency and performance. This year, more than 200 corporates are recognized as leading on Climate Change, Water and Forests. UPM-Kymmene Corporation was one of only 8 companies to achieve the Forests A list in the latest round of CDP disclosures. The other leading companies are: Unilever plc, TETRA PAK, L'Oréal, HP Inc, FUJI OIL HOLDINGS INC., FIRMENICH SA, and Danone.
Read more about the Forests methodology here.

Metsä Group's Äänekoski mill in Finland now calls itself a ‘bioproducts mill’ as it makes paper and wood for recyclable drinks cartons, clothing and building materials. They re-use the chemical additives and by-products of the production process to make sure they are not wasted. They also deploy drones to digitally map the forest area so they can monitor trees using a mobile phone app and then arrange remotely for contractors to thin or harvest an area when the trees look ready. For more information, please visit Metsä Group's website.

Ten years ago, the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) made a commitment to end deforestation in member companies’ supply chains by 2020. As 2020 approaches, the companies will inevitably miss the deadline. An international coalition of NGOs called this out CGF members and relayed the following expectations in this open letter:
• Communicate a mandatory requirement ensuring suppliers comply with ‘No Deforestation, No Peat and No Exploitation (NDPE) commitments.
• Ensure human rights are respected and compliance with international standards of Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC).
• Establish comprehensive, proactive, and transparent monitoring systems that rapidly detect non-compliance across supply chains and require implementation of the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) for agricultural development involving land-use change. Assessments should use the Integrated High Conservation Value (HCV)- HCSA Assessment Manual and be approved by the High Conservation Value Resource Network (HCVRN) Quality Review Panel before development
• Publish guidelines to address non compliances, including thresholds for suspension and grievance mechanisms
• Provide incentives and support to upstream suppliers to manage risk
• Publish public facing reports on progress

The Suzano Pulp and Paper mill in Imperatriz, Maranhão state, Brazil, was inaugurated in 2014 and has an annual production capacity of 1.65 million tons of pulp and 60,000 tons of toilet paper. But a local activist interviewed by the World Rainforest Movement argues that the mill has had negative impacts on the local community.

SPOTT released their 2019 timber and pulp assessment results, which show the tropical forestry sector needs to improve public disclosure of policies and practices. Although average scores were just 20.4%, compared to 31.1% in 2018, companies assessed since 2017 have, on average, increased their score over time, showing some progress towards transparency. A full summary of this year’s assessments is available at this link.