In Sweden, forests will lose their FSC label to facilitate their exploitation
The Swedish group SCA, Europe's largest private forest owner, plans to abandon its FSC environmental certification as of June 1st to make it easier to exploit its forests. The decision has shocked Sami associations and baffled experts, reports the Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter.
“This is a massive blow,” says Jenny Wik Karlsson, president of the Swedish Sami Association. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) , the most respected environmental certification in the forestry and paper industry, aims to ensure sustainable forest management by helping to combat deforestation, store carbon, and protect the rights of indigenous peoples, biodiversity, and water quality.
Thus, FSC-certified companies are not allowed to exploit forest areas of high environmental value, called “remarkable biotopes”, which may be home to endangered species, and must take into account the possible presence of reindeer herds.
Dagens Nyheter revealed last year that SCA (Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget) intended to exploit areas with remarkable biotopes. As Europe's largest forest owner, the group has now decided to abandon certification in Sweden as of June 1st . This was announced by Jonas Martensson, regional manager of SCA's forestry branch, in an email to the FSC, which Dagens Nyheter has seen.
In this message, he
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