Partners in responsibility Mondi, the State Forest Service and a local NGO, Silver Taiga, lead the way in forest certification in the Komi Republic of Russia. In 2003 Mondi Syktyvkar initiated a process of forest certification in the Komi Republic of Russia in accordance with the internationally recognised standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a process that ensures forestry practices are economically viable, environmentally responsible and socially beneficial, especially to local communities.

Forest succession (Image courtesy of Silver Taiga)

Phase I
Mondi Syktyvlcar, in partnership with the State Forest Service and Silver Taiga Foundation (a local NGO), completed certification of the Koigorodskoe (613 301 ha) and the Sysolskoe (561 855 ha) state forestry management units both of which contained some Mondi leased areas.

Forest certification was a relatively new concept for Komi and the process included awareness-raising, training, planning, assessment and engagement with local stakeholders, including remote logging companies spread across a wide area of Komi. Certification of the two State forest units was achieved in March 2006 after two years of intensive preparation and field work.

The certification process highlighted the importance of long-term forest planning, assessment of the environmental impacts of commercial forestry, protection of rare and endangered species, appropriate conservation of pristine High Conservation Value (HCV) forests and transparent engagement with local communities.

The success of Phase I was largely due to the skilled staff and financial support of Mondi, together with support from Silver Taiga, the State Forest Department and the Government of the Komi Republic. The Government and State authorities were primarily interested in the promotion of forest certification and sustainable forest management, while Silver Taiga was provided with the opportunity to implement expertise it gained in the FSC certification of the Priluzije Model Forest project.

Phase II 2007/8 saw certification of an additional 1.2 million hectares of Mondi leased areas and forest management unit Kazhimskoe and the Chain of Custody certification (CoC) for the Mondi Syktyvkar pulp mill. This brought the total certified area (Mondi leased areas and state forestry units certified with Mondi’s support) to 3.1 million hectares – an outstanding logistical achievement involving a range of stakeholders scattered over this sparsely populated rural area of North-West Russia.

Intact boreal forest in Russia (Image courtesy of Silver Taiga)

Phase III
2009 will see a further 616,000 hectares certified, completing certification of all the Mondi leased areas in Komi.

The benefits from the certification project have been substantial:

1. FSC certification of the leased areas provides third party evidence that we are sustainably managing the Russian forestry assets that are in our care
2. (The scale of certification has enabled Mondi Syktyvkar to reach the current FSC threshold for product labeling and increased the potential for the production of certified products
3. By promoting FSC certification in Komi, Mondi has enabled a number of smaller and medium-sized enterprises to obtain Chain of Custody certification for their wood products
4. The certification process has been closely linked to our multi-stakeholder HCV forest programme in Komi and the combination has resulted in the large-scale implementation of responsible forestry practice that sets aside areas of high conservation value, provides for rare and endangered species and takes into account requirements of local communities
5. On completion of phase I, Mondi was awarded the coveted WWF Panda Award, in recognition of the value of this project to conservation in Russia

This substantial achievement is the result of cooperation between all relevant stakeholders in Komi and Mondi will endeavour to ensure that the cooperative process continues to their mutual benefit.

Last change: 08.07.2009