4 January 2006
The first private forests were certified in Lithuania as meeting the FSC requirements of well managed forests. A group of private forest owners was formed in July on the initiative of Stora Enso Wood Supply Baltic, Lithuania region. The certificate was granted at the end of December. Up until now, only state-owned forests were certified in Lithuania.
"Social and environmental responsibility is a key issue for Stora Enso. It is important for our clients to know that wood is delivered from a forest managed according to the principles of sustainability," says Maris Zudrags, Environmental Manager of Stora Enso Wood Supply Baltic. "Forest owners' interest to assess their own forests and work according to established standards shows increasing responsibility in forestry business."
Demand for certified wood products is increasing worldwide. Already today some European countries, like the UK, Netherlands, and Denmark, prefer certified wood products in public procurement. Stora Enso promotes forest certification in every country it operates. "We initiated this process in Lithuania, because forest certification is not only a moral commitment, it also brings economic benefit, as it offers forest owners possibilities to enter new markets," comments Maris Zudrags.
Consumption of certified wood in Stora Enso mills is increasing every year – from 33% in 2001 up to 48% in 2004, although only 5% of the forests in the world are certified. In the Baltic countries all state forests are FSC certified, which is about 50% of the forests in each country. All three country organisations in Stora Enso Wood Supply Baltic have FSC chain-of-custody certificates.
Wood Supply Baltic is a wood procurement organization operating in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. It supplies Stora Enso's sawmills in the Baltic countries with sawlogs and delivers pulp wood, chips, sawdust and fuel wood to the company's mills in other parts of Europe, mainly Sweden and Finland. Wood Supply Baltic has altogether 280 people working in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. The wood procurement volume totalled 4.8 million cubic meters in 2004.
