WWF-India stresses need for forest certification
By chennaivision at 19 May, 2009, 3:00 pm
Kochi, World Wildlife Fund (WWF-India) Senior Coordinator T R Manoharan today stressed the importance of forest certification to ensure increased market access, particularly in the international market.
Presenting a paper on ”Promoting Credible Forest Certification in India” at a workshop on ‘Forest Certification’ here, Dr Manoharan said, ”forest certification could reduce the reputational risks of the companies and increase business opportunities.” He said a serious limitation for the Indian industries using wood and timber products of not having forest certification was the difficulty of getting the ‘Chain of Custody’ certificate.
”The certification, given by an independent agency, verifies that an area of forest was managed to a defined standard and the products from the area had legitimacy by the chain of custody certificate,” he noted.
Stressing the importance of forest certification, Dr Manoharan said while China had three million hectares of forest area certified, India had only 644 hectares of rubber plantation certified.
”India is targeting 33 per cent under forest area by 2012 and the trade and investments in forest products are increasing. The country is likely to face shortage of supply of timber to meet its requirements,” he added.
Referring to Kerala, Dr Manoharan said in the state the timber, besides from forest area was coming from rubber plantations and other agro-forestry system and there was a need to urgently certify the forest area along with other relevant areas.
He noted that certification vouches that the area was managed to a defined standard and this would ensure increased market access, particularly in the international market.
The one-day workshop, organised by the Global and Trade Network-India and WWF-India with the support from the European Commission (SWITCH Asia Project), was inaugurated by State Forests and Wildlife Principal Secretary P K Mohanty.
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