FSC NI Norway
The FSC National Initiative in Norway is now officially accredited.
Head of the NI, Christian Pedersen from WWF Norway, says:” We are now finalizing the first draft national FSC standard for Norway and expect to send it out for consultation soon”. He expects that if all goes well, the next version of the standard will be field tested during the summer of 2009.
Growing market interest
“The interest among wood-based industries is clearly growing”, says Pedersen.
“Our hope is that a growing number of CoC Certified businesses on the domestic market will make FSC certification more attractive for the forest owners. Clearly one of the major challenges for our National Initiative is to develop the domestic market and raise consumer awareness of the FSC label”.
FSC certification is still in its initial stage of development in Norway. Currently, there are 14 active CoC certificates issued in Norway, while one FSC forest management group certificate has been issued so far.
Requirements under discussion
According to Pedersen, the key points of discussion are the question of set-aside areas as well as the use of exotic species.
“We are currently debating whether forest owners who have received economic compensation from the Norwegian government for setting areas aside from harvesting should be allowed to include such areas under the 5% target for set-aside areas in the FSC standard”, he says.
“As for exotic species, Norwegian forestry does not rely on them to a very large extent. However, in the Western part of the country, the exotic Sitka spruce is widely used nowadays, and forest owners in this region rely on the species for their income. The concern is that the species is regenerating naturally and spreading into natural forest”.
Pedersen does not expect that the rights of the Saami people located in the Northern part of Norway will become a major issue during the consultation period. “Norway has institutionalized the rights of the Saamis through a special law (the Finnmark Law), and the land user rights of the Saamis are generally seen as well protected in this country”, he says.
In addition to the FSC National Initiative in Norway, FSC has also recently accredited FSC NIs in Nepal and Honduras.
Sources: FSC and Christian Pedersen of WWF-Norway.
