Ethical bank targets FSC business in developing countries … The leading Danish ethical bank Merkur Cooperative Bank has been financing socially and environmentally sustainable business development in Europe for …

EU ministers: thumbs down to ban on illegal wood import … During a meeting on the 15th of December, the EU Council of Agricultural Ministers decided against a proposal to put an EU-wide legal ban on trade in illegal wood products - a move that would match …

Crash course on climate financing and REDD+ … The Global Canopy Programme - an alliance of 37 scientific institutions in 19 countries - has produced two excellent and user-friendly books on climate change …

Rays of hope for the forests … Ironically, the snow started falling during the last days of the Copenhagen summit where world leaders were gathering to combat global …

Industry response … Some of the issues presented by speakers at the Forest Day 3 event in Copenhagen will have major implications for the forest product industries, although it is hard to tell exactly when or …

Biomass boost: Implications for FSC and PEFC … Green energy is on the rise in the EU, and leading European bioenergy producers will soon be demanding woody biomass from responsible origins. This could add value to FSC and PEFC certified forests and wood …

IKEA company earns first SBP certificate for responsible biomass in Poland … IKEA Industry Poland Wielbark is the first Polish company to achieve Sustainable Biomass Partnership (SBP) certification. The certificate is a new milestone in the company’s …

Seven tips from a certification wizard … “The man never stops surprising me with his incredible knowledge about FSC – he has this amazing total recall of all the details. At the same time, he’s a big picture thinker and visionary. I am extremely glad to …

Adaptive forestry: Last minute for action … What will happen with our forests if temperatures increase by 2 degrees - the UN target for average global temperature increase? And what will happen if the world leaders do not manage to make an agreement …

Home Green Home … FSC-Denmark presented the exhibition "Home Green Home" at the Copenhagen Climate Exchange exhibition taking place in connection with the COP15 climate …

FSC adapts to climate change … During the FSC General Assembly held a year ago, the membership asked FSC to explore its role in climate …

Gucci follows green fashion trend in paper procurement … In a move to avoid contributing to destruction of Indonesia's precious tropical forests and to lower its carbon footprint, the Gucci Group has adopted a strong paper policy that sets preference for …

New corruption figures: changes in Controlled Wood risk … The new Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released by Transparency International has implications for companies sourcing controlled wood from countries with a CPI fluctuating around …

FSC-certified newspapers … FSC-certified news now available: FSC-labeled newspapers with a total circulation of more than 200,000 daily issues were recently launched almost simultaneously in the Netherlands and …

FSC certification of 8,000 Swedish family forests … The great success of Swedish forest group Södra's FSC group scheme proves that large scale FSC certification of small private forest land In Europe is …

FSC milestones … While the financial crisis continued to shake the world, environmental awareness kept growing worldwide this year, spurred on by the debate about the world's most pressing problem - imminent climate …

FSC database revised: Good news, bad news … FSC has revised and upgraded its database http://info.fsc.org (previously  www.fsc-info.org ) to eliminate some recurring technical problems. A more stable system should now be in place, and some new features …

PEFC logo usage rules … A new set of PEFC logo usage rules was adopted by the PEFC Council. …

New FSC rules for forest groups: a helping hand for family forests … FSC has released two sets of rules that apply to group certification of forests: A new FSC standard for certified forest management groups, and a new accreditation standard for forest …

… New Spanish FM standard … FSC has approved a revised version of the Spanish forest … standard that finally allows plantations in Spain to become FSC-certified. …