Independent Forest Certification

Canfor is one of the few primary lumber manufacturers to offer products certified to all of the independent certification programs in North America – the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Sustainable Forest Management Standard, the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative®  (SFI®). CSA and SFI are fully endorsed by the international umbrella organization for certification, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).

Canfor actively contributes to the development of forest certification standards. Our British Columbia Chief Forester is a member of the Standards Development Group responsible for overseeing and providing strategic direction for the revision of the FSC forest management standard in Canada. Our General Manager, Forest Planning, for Canfor’s Forest Management Group sits on the CSA Sustainable Forest Management Technical Committee.

In total, 98.5% of Canfor’s woodlands operations are certified to the CSA, SFI or FSC standards for sustainable forest management. Canfor staff are working with the local Public Advisory Group to revise the Radium Sustainable Forest Management plan so it can address CSA and FSC forest certification. There will continue to be separate defined forest areas for the Radium CSA and Kootenay FSC operations with one common set of indicators and targets, and performance results included in the same annual report.

Canfor Pulp gives preference to suppliers that offer third-party certified fibre. In 2015, we reached our goal of having 82% of our fibre come from third-party certified sources covered by a complete chain of custody. Canfor Pulp aims to source 90% of our fibre from PEFC or FSC sources by 2020.

Canada and United States Lead the World in Certification

There are three internationally recognized certification programs in North America: Canadian Standards Association (CSA), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®).  Recent statistics show Canada and the United States are leaders in forest certification globally, which highlights the commitment to sustainability of North American forest managers.

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