FSC takes off in Russia - June 30th, 2005

The 4th FSC Russia National Working Group (NWG) Conference was recently held in Zvenigorod, a town off Moscow from 26 to 27 May 2005. The conference marked a major step forward for the Russia NWG in solidifying its foundation and harmonizing its standard development process with its regional counterparts.

FSC representatives, Heiko Liedeker, Executive Director of FSC International Center and Liviu Amariei, Director, FSC Europe, along with key representatives from Russian National Forest Certification System and Global Forest and Trade Network and 50 other social, environmental and economic stakeholders participated in the two-day conference.

Attendees from leading environmental non-governmental groups, including Greenpeace and WWF, Ilim Pulp, Archangelsk Pulp and Paper, Mondi and other leading Russian forest industry players, as well as the Russian forest trade union voted to endorse the Russian framework national FSC standard, to make changes, as recommended by FSC International Centre, to the NWG FSC statutes and accept new members for the NWG’s Economic and Social Chambers.

Major players in forest industry such as IKEA Russia, Onega, the fourth largest sawmill in Russia and Cherepovetsles, the largest harvesting company in the European part of Russia were among the new members for the Economic Chamber.

The conference also witnessed the signing of a major agreement for a joint project in forest certification between the FSC Russia National Initiative and the Russian National Forest Certification Council. The agreement presents an opportunity for FSC to accelerate the harmonisation of Russian forest legislation and certification requirements, develop possible co-operation with the FLEG(T) process, and to further strengthen FSC certification activities and build capacity in Russia.

FSC certified forest area in Russia has been increasing at an accelerated pace over the past few years, with a total FSC certified forest area of four million hectares and another 10 to 15 million hectares reported to be actively seeking FSC certification.

Source: FSC Russia

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