Wood certification in Slovakia
| Partner: |
The Slovakian State Forest |
| Project timescale |
2005 - 2008 |
| Aims: |
To increase the uptake of wood certification schemes by suppliers in Central and Eastern Europe
Protect the environment through the widespread use of ethical forestry practices |
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Our Ružomberok mill in Slovakia received FSC chain of custody certification in January 2007, meaning that all the wood it consumes (standing at 1.7 million m³ each year) meets our standards ensuring its ethical provenance. We use the FSC-certified wood supply company Slovwood to ensure that all the wood we receive meets those standards.
However, this seriously restricts the number of small suppliers from where Slovwood can source wood in Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine and Czech Republic – recent figures show that only 12% of all wood supplies in these countries meet our provenance requirements. |
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We are very keen to support local suppliers, and are actively working to encourage the wider uptake of FSC and PEFC certification in these countries. Already, rapidly increasing supplies of certified wood are becoming available in Poland and Czech Republic.
This work includes our support for the Slovakian State Forest in its certification effort, due for completion in 2007/8, by funding a Forestry Officer to assist with the process. Once certification is achieved, the supply of locally-produced certified wood for Ružomberok will increase by up to 50%. We have already re-classified Slovakia from a high-risk to a ‘low-risk’ source country.
Ukraine, meanwhile, retains our ‘high-risk’ classification. We have now developed our own chain of custody process, which identifies all wood sources to ensure that any materials we use meet our standards.
Last change: 27/03/2008