1/12/2010

FSC & Copenhagen '09.

One month ago, Copenhagen, Denmark was a flurry of activity with the United Nations climate negotiations (COP 15) taking place. For the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), deforestation and forest degradation were certainly on the agenda. As both cause, "nearly 20% of all global greenhouse gas emissions - more than are produced by all forms of transportation combined," they needed to be addressed in the UN's draft plan for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). The REDD plan sets the stepping-stone goal of cutting deforestation in poor countries in half by the year 2020 and the ultimate goal of completely ending it by 2030. The FSC is the, "most appropriate and proven tool to safeguard social concerns such as tenure rights and community benefits, as well as for addressing environmental issues such as protection of old-growth forests and rare species." The importance of becoming FSC Chain-of-Custody (COC) certified are as follows.

"While consumers already select forest products based on species, grade, visual characteristics, etc., they now can identify products that provide an assurance of social and environmental responsibility on the part of the producer. To do this, the FSC system requires that material be tracked from the certified source through the manufacturing process. This aspect of the system is the basis for any credible certification system and is the link between consumer preference and responsible, on the ground performance."

On projects you are working on, PlanetReuse can help with FSC options. For our COC certificate detail, click here!

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