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China Should Speed Up Certification Mechanism Process to Manage Forests
China should promote the international certification mechanism process for sustainable forest management in order to protect forests and facilitate foreign trade, according to experts at an environmental forum in Beijing.
At the 21st Century Forum on Forestry and Environmental Protection, Lu Wenming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Forestry, said the certification is a market-based method of enhancing and strengthening awareness about sustainable use of forests, and it is used to communicate to consumers related information on where the timber comes from, and whether the forest has been managed in a sustainable way.
The forest certificate system was first initiated by non- governmental organizations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Friends of Earth, and it has become accepted and supported by governments in many countries.
Lu said that by May 31 this year, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an organization established in November 1993, which aims to evaluate, issue and monitor certificates, had certified 23. 69 million hectares of forests at 325 forest management units in 46 countries and 20,000 timber processing lines in over 1,000 timber processing companies in the world.
Due to the strong demand for China's timber products on international markets, Chinese processing companies have gradually become aware of such international requirements. However, as of June 30 this year, the FSC had only certified 17 Chinese timber processing companies and no Chinese forests had been accredited the certificate.
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