Paper “FSC labelled” with guaranteed renewable resources

How much paper do you use per year? How many leaflets or other promotional materials do you receive in a year? When I recently found a stack of regular discount offers and other unsolicited promotional magazines or information brochures in my mailbox, I became interested in these numbers. After a long search, I finally tracked down some of these figures: about 130 kg of paper is used by each Czech per year, 1,343,000 tonnes for the whole Czech Republic. These figures correspond to twice the consumption of ten years ago. I admit that even I prefer to flip through a clear printed newspaper or archive various data from my e-mail on paper.

And since I would not like to give up paper in the future, I am grateful for initiatives such as the FSC (Forest Stewardship Counsil)whose logo can be found on envelopes, tickets, tissues, wallpaper, office paper, wooden furniture… The green tree symbol guarantees environmentally responsible forest management and the social and economic viability of logging and wood processing. This international NGO was founded in 1993 and is now represented in more than 80 countries.

FSC has established several “green” standards, criteria and principles that govern the work of foresters in forests worldwide. Such principles include the conservation of biodiversity, the establishment of an economic management plan and control of the state of the forest concerned, legal logging (in accordance with domestic laws and civil rights)… In total, these standards contain 10 basic principles and 56 criteria. Each year, one such forest is audited against these approaches. Only those forests that pass this check are allowed to label and sell their wood with the FSC logo.

However, the FSC Community is not limited to forest management supervision, but also includes certification of the entire processing chain. Companies wishing to further process raw timber, trade and label their products with the FSC label must also be FSC certified. This ensures that the production process is controlled and that certified timber is not combined with non-certified timber from controversial sources. The FSC thus makes its logo available, making it possible to recognise responsible forestry and production in the timber processing process.

Consumers who buy products with the FSC logo are actively contributing to the ecological management of renewable natural resources across the globe.

For all readers who, like me, hang on the printed or handwritten word, the existence of this institution and its
control activities is very good news!

Author.