FSC Stories from around the world
Certified Cosmetics Keep Workforce Online
When modernization of mill operations threatened the jobs of some 600 workers, Brazil's Klabin, a Brazilian pulp and paper Brazilian company sought a way to preserve the livelihoods of its employees. At the time, Klabin was well down the path toward Forest Stewardship Council certification of its 230,000 hectares operation in Brazil's Satate of Paraná, and realized its commitment to the long-term social and economic welfare of its workforce. With this commitment in mind, furloughs were simply not an option.
Klabins solution was innovative as it was imaginative. The company would expand its phytotherapeutics (plan-based medicines) manufacturing into a first-of-its-kind line of FSC-certified cosmetics and medicinal goods. To mitigate the impact of a reduction in its mill workforce, Klabin created a development project. The company donated a plot of land to the city on which workers could establish their own companies. In addition, Klabin made a commitment to supply certified wood to these ventures. Today, some 20 companies with more than 1,300 workers operate at the Telemaco de Borboa site, producing FSC certified cosmetics, medicines and furniture.
Klabin's development project is viewed as an unqualified success, contributing to improvement in the standard of living of workers through income, social benefits, and, not surprisingly, medicinal assistance.
According with Loana Johansson, Operations Manager of Phytoterapy and responsible for the NTFP area at Klabin, "the award of this seal of approval gives testimony to the fact that forestry activities can be diversified without losing sight of their main objective: to create social, ecological and financial benefits that can be invested in society and environment."
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