Forest Certification 

Forest Certification 

• Forest certification is a mechanism for forest monitoring, tracing and labeling timber, wood and pulp products and non-timber forest products 
• the issuing of a certificate by an independent party, which verifies that an area of forest is managed to a defined standard
• It is a process that leads to the issuing of a certificate by an independent party, which verifies that an area of forest is managed to a defined standard
• Forest certification refers to two separate processes viz.,
  forest management unit certification (FMU) and chain of custody certification (COC)
• Forest management certification is a process which verifies that an area of forest /plantations from where the wood, fiber and other non-timber forest products is extracted is managed to a defined standard.
•  COC certification is a process of tracking forest products from the certified forest to the point of sale to ensure that product originated from a certified forest.

Advantages of Forest Certification 

• For buyers of forest products, the responsible sourcing is their adoption of policies and practices that reward suppliers using wood, fiber and other non wood forest products from wellmanaged forests or from recycled products and discouraging suppliers using it from unknown, illegal or otherwise controversial sources

 Current status of Forest Certification in India 

• Forest certification in India is still at an early stage and therefore the nation has not been able to make use of the benefits of forest certification
• India has secured one FSC Forest Management Unit Certificate (644 ha of rubber plantations in Tamil Nadu State) and a few COCs mainly by small and medium companies to meet export demand.

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