Mr. Besancon continued, “The chain-of-custody that our paper bags have attained means these bags can be tracked throughout the supply chain - from post-consumer waste through processing and distribution to the shopper toting home groceries, all the while reducing pressure on virgin forests and  protecting biodiversity.”

FSC offers the most comprehensive standard for certification of forest products. FSC-certified paper can originate from post-consumer recycled fiber or from forests certified according to the FSC’s rigorous forest management standards. The FSC’s independently verified chain-of-custody system requires paper producers to track their certified fiber throughout the production and distribution process.

Corey Brinkema, FSC US President said, “Whole Foods Market’s decision to provide FSC-certified grocery bags sets a tremendous example for its industry peers. It also helps educate its customers about the importance of forest stewardship.”

Previously, Whole Foods Market was the first national retailer to offer 100 percent recycled (60 percent post-industrial/ 40 percent post-consumer) paper bags at its checkouts. FSC certification on paper bags made from 100 percent post-consumer reclaimed material is another first for the natural and organic foods retailer. Post-consumer reclaimed material typically comes from corrugated boxes that might have held food or other products that have been shipped to various retail outlets. This repurposing is important in a country that is the biggest market for paper products globally, producing 90 million tons of paper and consuming 100 million tons of paper each year.

Allen Hershkowitz, Senior Scientist, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said, “While bringing your own reusable bag is always the best choice, Whole Foods Market’s switch to FSC-certified bags made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled content is a great step forward. This move virtually eliminates the bags’ impact on forests and also sends a strong signal to other businesses that making the right environmental choices is possible.”.

Mr. Hershkowitz continued, “Consumers want and deserve better environmental options when they open their wallets. Whole Foods Market is delivering those options, both with this new bag and with its previous efforts to promote reusable bags as well as protect endangered forests and prevent native forests from being converted to tree plantations.”

Learn more about Whole Foods Market's initiatives at blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/category/green-action/. Find more information on Earth Month activities at wholefoodsmarket.com/earthmonth.

Press contact:
Ashley Hawkins
Whole Foods Market
+1 (512) 542-0381  
email: Ashley.Hawkins @wholefoods.com

Source: Whole Foods Market, www.wholefoods.com

Access to FSC certification and its benefits can be more challenging for small forest holders than for larger enterprises. FSC group certification allows a group of forest managers to join together to overcome procedural barriers and share certification costs.

A group entity holds a single certificate on behalf of the group members and is responsible for ensuring that all members are in compliance with the FSC Principles & Criteria. To ensure that certificates under these arrangements do not compromise the quality of a certificate, this standard puts safeguards in place. 

The final draft includes changes that take into consideration the results of three pilot projects on group certification in Estonia, France and the US held in early 2009. It also incorporates stakeholder comments from the consultation period on the first draft of the document in November and December 2008.

More information on the key changes to the standard, how to submit your comments and background information may be found www.fsc.org/consultation-group.html.

A native of Finland, Ms. Hotti has lived in Germany for several years with her husband and son. Her new designation as Trademark Officer brings welcome support to the Trademark Services Unit. It also marks an FSC ‘first’: she is the first Finnish full time employee at FSC, bringing further diversity to the international team.

Ms. Hotti will begin her work as Trademark Officer starting on 4 May 2009.

Andre de Freitas, FSC Executive Director, said: “We are looking at various ways to adapt our system to increase the benefits FSC brings to communities.” The FSC Global Strategy clearly identifies this as one of FSC’s five strategic goals. He continued, “This collaboration with Fairtrade is a great opportunity for us to combine the strengths of each organization to benefit forest communities.”

Rob Cameron, CEO at Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), the international umbrella organisation for Fairtrade, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for us to include timber products in our portfolio, and to work alongside FSC as an organization with whom we share many values.”

In 2007, FSC and FLO first explored the potential role of Fairtrade in creating market opportunities for community-based foresters. The research confirmed market interest for a credible system to distinguish community forest products, and that co-operation between FSC and Fairtrade would be the ideal basis for such a system.

A follow-up feasibility study concluded a strong case for the development of FSC and Fairtrade dual-certification that could ultimately benefit millions of forest-dwelling and forest-dependent people.

Mr Cox will establish a small number of supply chains and test the feasibility of bringing their timber products to market under the dual labels.  The model will then be evaluated to see if it could be incorporated into the existing FSC and FLO certification systems.

With 20 years of experience in forest certification, his work particularly focused on marketing certified products from the tropics and the challenges that small-scale forest producers face in these regions. For the last 10 years, Mr. Cox has been working for the UK-based timber importer and distributor Timbmet Ltd; a role he will continue alongside this new part-time position.

For information about the project, visit www.fsc.org/FSC-FLO.html in our new online Project Section.

The EU Agricultural Council will meet in Luxemburg to take the final vote in June 2009. If adopted, the new measures should come into force in 2010/2011.

Financial penalties cover environmental damages, tax losses, timber value and economic damages incurred by infringements. Repeated offenders face fines of at least eight times the product market value. Timber and timber-products can also be seized and offenders can be temporarily prohibited from marketing these products.

Companies will need to provide information about the source of the products they trade in the EU. According to the amendments, “any voluntary chain of custody mechanism which fulfill the requirements under [the] Regulation” can be used as a basis to demonstrate legality, in addition to national legislative supervision.

As a global certification system with robust standards, FSC requires that all FSC certified forests meet national and international laws – as well as strict social and environmental requirements. Independently audited and in line with ISO regulations, the certified material is also tracked through the supply chain.

The legislation also pushes for bilateral talks between the EU with other major timber consuming countries such as the US, China, Russia and Japan to assess possible harmonized obligations. The US has already made it illegal to import, sell, trade of illegally harvested wood when it amended the Lacey Act in September 2008.

FSC is exploring compatibility of the FSC system with the amended legislation in Europe and the US. 

In February 2009, the European Parliaments Environmental Committee voted almost unanimously for the legislation. Momentum to eliminate illegal timber from Europe continued when members of the European Parliament voted 465-22 in favor of the legislation with 187 abstentions.

The EU governments have debated on a timber law for more than five years.

View the amendments at the European Parliament website.

The FSC Group structure reflects the different responsibilities within the FSC Group, with FSC IC being responsible for FSC’s policy and standards development, network and stakeholder relations, and communications; ASI being responsible for managing the FSC Accreditation Program and providing accreditation services to other schemes; and FSC Global Development managing the FSC trademarks and brand.

Mr. de Freitas is the fourth Executive Director of FSC A.C.

Until now, FSC has required that only FSC accredited National Initiatives can develop and submit a national standard to FSC for approval. However, many were submitted without an accredited National Initiative in the country, causing considerable delays in the development and approval of national standards.

With the approval of FSC-STD-60-006, there is now the possibility to allow national and regional standards to be developed and approved by FSC without the need to accredit an NI.

In order to register a Forest Stewardship Standard, a proposal and work plan must be submitted to the FSC Policy and Standards Unit.  This applies whether the process is new or has been running for some time; whether or not there is an accredited NI working in the country.

Where an accredited National Initiative exists, the Standards Development Group may be a function of the National Initiative. Where there is no accredited National Initiative, FSC-STD-60-006 specifies how a Standards Development Group needs to be structured in order to register its process.

All national or regional Forest Stewardship Standards submitted to FSC shall, with immediate effect, only receive FSC approval if it is:

1. registered by FSC Policy and Standards Unit;
2. developed in accordance with requirements specified in the new standard;
3. complies with the requirements of all FSC documents related to the structure and content of FSC Forest Stewardship Standards.

This new standard replaces all previous requirements as set out in the NI Manual relating to the development of national standards and will greatly enhance the quality of national standards and efficiency of their production.

To assist those who wish to work on national and regional standards, FSC has produced “FSC-GUI-60-004 (1-0) Draft 1.0 EN FSC Forest Stewardship Standards: structure, content and suggested indicators”, which accompanies FSC-STD-60-006. The template provides suggested or 'generic' indicators and guidance notes for Standards Development Groups and certification bodies.

If you are developing a national or regional standard, please contact Richard Robertson, Forest Stewardship Standards Manager.

The event will be packed with panel discussions, workshops and updates on FSC’s latest internal policies related to the garden furniture sector including:

• Matching supply and demand
• FSC garden furniture market
• Marketing of FSC garden furniture
• FSC rules in process
• … and more

To register or for preliminary event information, visit: www.fsc-deutschland.de/FGFF.pdf. Full details will be available from 8 April 2009 at: www.relaxintothefuture.org. For further interest on partnerships and product presentation, contact: Marco Gretz, FSC Germany (e-mail;+49 76 138 65 358).