According to the Timber Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), forest products as well as living forests can play a role in mitigating climate change. For example, wood used for green building and energy may help combat global warming Read more

Who owns the world's forests? A recent report confirms the picture that only a small fraction of  forests belongs to local communities and indigenous peoples. However, this pattern is slowly changing, and in some countries significant changes have taken place during the past six years Read more

The global FSC system as well as PEFC Germany and  the PEFC-endorsed certification system FFCS in Finland have been evaluated as acceptable under the Dutch criteria for timber procurement Read more

Even in the face of global economic downturn and general decrease in forest products demand, commitment to certification stays strong in the European and North American marketplace. This is predicted in a forest products market forecast by UNECE and FAO Read more 

One of the world's most forest-rich countries, Russia, now has its own national FSC standard. The national FSC standard for Russia has been approved by FSC and came into force on 11th of November 2008 Read more

Russia's Prime Minister Putin has announced that the export duty increase expected to be implemented in January 2009 will be postponed for 9-12 months Read more

As of 1st of January, all older versions of the FSC chain of custody rules will be phased out and companies still using them must switch to the most recent standard. A single standard will henceforth be applicable to all companies, signifying substantial progress towards a more simple and user-friendly system Read more

For the first time since the FSC accreditation fees were introduced, the fees are being adjusted. Most certificate holders will experience increased fees, reflecting the need to allocate resources for the FSC network Read more

A new FSC standard addressing group certification is out for public consultation. The draft helps to streamline group certification by compiling existing rules into one standard, but does not represent major progress towards certification of smallscale forestry operations Read more

FSC Germany is organizing an FSC booth at this year's Paper World, taking place in Frankfurt on 31 January - 3 February 2009. Paper World 2009 is expected to attract around 66,000 visitors from around the world. Read more

In the last issue of Certified Wood Update, we reported that the  FSC community had decided that FSC should enter carbon emissions mitigation as a new business area. However, the motion approved by the FSC General Assembly does not go that far; it merely asks FSC to explore possible opportunities and risks in this context Read amended story

The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) - a popular single standard for voluntary carbon offset projects - has released new rules enabling forestry, agriculture and other land use project activities to generate permanent carbon credits that are completely fungible with other carbon credits  
Go to VCS press release

NEPCon's FSC-accredited partner the Rainforest Alliance willl be conducting FSC pre-assessment of about 630,000 hectares of forest in the Congo Basin. The operation under pre-assessment is the Loundougou-Toukoulaka concession of the company Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB), a subsidiary of the international company DLH
Read Stakeholder Notice from the Rainforest Alliance