Two steps forward, one step back for FSC in Poland

30 August 2007

Pila and Poznan Regional State Forest Directorates in Poland can now celebrate that they are again FSC-certified. They received their FSC certificate back from the Rainforest Alliance after several months of suspension. Meanwhile, RSFD Bialystok lost its certificate issued by the FSC certifier SGS due to non-compliance with the FSC requirements.

”The progress status for FSC in Poland may be described as ’two steps forward, one step back’”, comments Andrzej Czech, Director of NEPCon Poland. ”But proper actions need to be taken when certified operations don’t comply with the FSC requirements. This is what we have seen happening lately in Poland. At the end of the day, the system can only remain credible if it enforces compliance with the rules it has set up.”

Czech acknowledges the efforts done by the Pila and Poznan state forests to regain the certificates. ”Both directorates have taken significant steps to improve their performance in important areas such as worker safety, dead wood management, designation of non-intervention forest and contractors’ FSC compliance”, he notes, adding: “This is also good news for the many certified wood industries here in Poland, which are depending on steady supplies of certified raw material on our home market”.

Documented improvement
The re-installments of the two certificates were based on several audits conducted by NEPCon, to follow up on the non-compliances with FSC requirements that had resulted in the suspension of the certificates. Field audits were carried out by an international auditor team composed of well-experienced Polish auditors and auditors from abroad.

The audit teams noted substantial improvement in several areas of management, and after several audits all non-compliances were found to be properly addressed. The most important steps taken by the RSFDs included:

Mapping the most biologically valuable forest and excluding it from logging. Both RSFDs identified additional areas and increased the total area of protected forest significantly. In all, about 5 per cent of the forest area will be protected as non-intervention forest in the future.

Increased focus on safety equipment for forest workers. The RSFDs must ensure that all workers in the forest are wearing the required safety equipment, and that they are aware of safe working practices. Special focus was placed on the safety compliance by contractors working in the forest.

Measures to ensure that biologically valuable dead wood is left in the forest. Dead wood is important for many forest-living species such as insects, fungi, mosses and lichens. By providing habitat for insects, dead wood also increases food availability for many birds.
Further information
Summaries of the audit reports for Pila and Poznan RSFD can be downloaded at http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/forestry/smartwood/public_documents_country.cfm?country=4.

SGS has not yet published its last audit report for Bialystok RSFD, but a related FSC audit report is available at http://www.accreditation-services.com/SGSQUALIFOR.htm.