Glossary of environmental acronyms and terms
- FSC - Forest Stewardship Council
- PEFC - Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification
- SFI - Sustainable Forestry Initiative
- CSA - Canadian Standards Association
- MTCC - Malaysian Timber Certification Council
- CITES - Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
- WWF UK Forest and Trade Network
- CPET - Central Point of Expertise in Timber
- ISO 14001 - Environmental Management Systems
- EMAS - the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
- BS 8555 - Environmental Management Systems
- TRADA-Trak - Chain of Custody certification scheme
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FSC
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the organisation that has become synonymous with timber certification. To date, some 41 million hectares of forest worldwide are certified to FSC's forest management standards and the FSC "tick-tree" logo is comfortably the most widely recognised brand. FSC also enjoys the full support of the environmental NGOs, in particular Greenpeace and WWF. It is the only certification system that is currently recognised by the WWF-UK Forest and Trade Network and is regarded as the benchmark for all forest management standards. However, it is no longer the only show in town and other schemes, notably the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) have now become well-established. (Top of page)
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PEFC
In the last two years the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) - formerly known as the Pan-European Forest Certification - scheme has emerged and has grown with such rapidity that it now manages a greater area of certified forest than FSC. PEFC is a network of independent national forest certification standards that effectively operates under a single brand. To date, 13 European countries have had their national forest certification systems endorsed by PEFC, amounting to a combined certified forest area of 51.6 million hectares. PEFC has ambitions beyond Europe, however, and is already in the process of reviewing the Australian Forestry Standard prior to endorsement. It is believed that the Canadian standard may also follow later in the year.
PEFC operates successfully on the basis of mutual recognition between national standards. However, no such recognition exists between FSC and PEFC and it is at this point that the timber certification process runs into some difficulty. There is no doubt that significant differences exist between the FSC forest management process and the various schemes that make up the PEFC process. These are mainly differences in emphasis and interpretation of forest management criteria, but there are some philosophical differences as well, which make it difficult for FSC and their supporters to recognise PEFC as a credible process. (Top of page)
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SFI
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) program is a comprehensive system of principles, objectives and performance measures developed by professional foresters, conservationists and scientists, among others that combines the perpetual growing and harvesting of trees with the long-term protection of wildlife, plants, soil and water quality. There are currently over 136 million acres of forestland in North America enrolled in the SFI program, making it among the world's largest sustainable forestry programs. (Top of page)
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CSA
The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) is a not-for-profit, independent standards writing organisation. The CSA Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Project was initiated in June 1994, through funding and support of the Canadian forest industry. The purpose of the system is to provide a credible and recognised process for certifying sustainable forestry in Canada. The CSA SFM is modelled on the ISO environmental management systems standard (ISO series 14000) and the approach to certification involves the auditing of a sustainable forest management system for a defined forest area. A new version of the CSA Standard for Sustainable Forest Management, CSA Z809-02, was published in October 2003. (Top of page)
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MTCC
The Malaysian Timber Certification Council is an independent non-profit organisation established to plan and operate a voluntary national timber certification scheme to provide assurance to buyers of Malaysian timber products that the products have been sourced from sustainably managed forests. It has a Board of Trustees comprising representatives from academic and research and development institutions, the timber industry, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government agencies. (Top of page)
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CITES
The CITES convention includes three Appendices, which list plant and animal species that are under varying degrees of threat of extinction. Those under the greatest threat are listed in Appendix I (timber from which may not be legally traded), while those under lesser threat appear in Appendices II (trade permitted subject to export and import permits) and III (species protected within individual party states). These lists include a small number of commercially-significant timber species. Those wishing to purchase or specify species included in these Appendices should abide by the controls indicated and consider alternatives as necessary. The askTRADA Species Database indicates the CITES status of all species appropriately. (Top of page)
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WWF UK Forest and Trade Network
Formerly known as the WWF 95+ Group, the WWF UK Forest and Trade Network is a group of approximately 100 large purchasers of timber and wood-based products. This Group is pledged to source all their timber needs from sustainable sources. Members must operate a responsible timber purchasing policy, submit themselves to external audit and have an annual action plan for improvement. (Top of page)
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CPET
The Central Point of Expertise in Timber is the Department in charge of developing and implementing the UK Government's Sustainable Timber Procurement Policy. The operation of CPET is currently subcontracted to two private organisations, ProForest and Environmental Resources Management Ltd. (Top of page)
ISO 14001
This international standard is very widely used by companies as a framework to assist the installation of an Environmental Management System. It is also used by independent auditors to assess companies' environmental performance.
Environmental Management Systems are used by industries to achieve best practice and low environmental impact in their own operations. This may include such areas as energy and water consumption, raw materials usage and waste generation/recycling/disposal. In the timber industry, the systems may include procedures controlling the sourcing and usage of wood-based materials used in production. (Top of page)
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EMAS
EMAS - the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme - is a voluntary initiative designed to improve companies’ environmental performance by recognising and rewarding those organisations that go beyond minimum legal compliance and continuously improve their environmental performance. (Top of page)
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BS 8555
BS 8555 is a phased approach to implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS). The process of implementing an EMS is broken down into five levels, with a sixth level that leads to registration to a recognised environmental standard, ISO 14001 or EMAS. (Top of page)
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TRADA-Trak
This is the brand name of BM TRADA Certification's Chain of Custody schemes. (Top of page)
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