Finnish green groups ‘forcing’ FSC audits on forest owners

Finnish forest owners say environmentalists are putting undue pressure on them to submit to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) audits, but the FSC itself described the claims as ‘exaggerated’.

According to a report on the Finnish Forest Association website (www.finnish.fi), the allegations revolve around the FSC’s controlled wood standard, which is applied to timber the the certification organisation considers acceptable for use in association with fully-certified FSC material, when enough of the latter cannot be sourced to fulfil an order.

Forest owners, who in Finland to date have primarily opted for PEFC certification, are objecting to what they seem to see as an environmentalist campaign to force them down the FSC route by urging buyers to effectively boycott them if they don’t accept an FSC controlled wood audit.

The latest green group accused is the Finnish Association of Nature Conservation (FANC).

Vice-president FSC Finland Pasi Miettinen said it “sounded strange” that environmental activists were urging a boycott, but thought it was an “exaggerated interpretation” of events.

However, Sini Erajaa of the FANC effectively acknowledged it had taken this line, although said it wasn’t an “attempted ban on trading in wood”.

“The responsibility lies with the buyer,” she said. “And the seller is not obliged to sell.”