Government demands push foresters to go green.

Consumer, retail and now government demands for certified wood have convinced a northeastern Ontario forest licence holder to go green.

The Sustainable Forest Licence holders harvesting wood fibre on Crown forests north and east of Sault Ste. Marie are in the process of assembling their evidence binder to apply for FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification.

And if all goes well this fall, Jim Miller, a forester with Clergue Forest Management, anticipates receiving FSC certification by late winter or early spring 2005.

Clergue, a Sault Ste. Marie forest management company, is the Sustainable Forest Licence (SFL) holder for the Wawa and Algoma forests.

The soon-to-be amalgamated Crown unit of one million hectares of maple, white birch, spruce and jack pine stretches from Pukaskwa National Park on Lake Superior to the north shore of Lake Huron, near St. Joseph's Island.

Clergue manages the unit for mills in Hearst, Wawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Thessalon and Espanola.

Certification is part of a growing international consumer trend to demand that forestry companies follow socially and environmentally responsible guidelines.

There are various certification processes. The most globally recognized is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international body that sets stringent ecological certification standards in spelling out the practice by which trees must be harvested.

Consumers buying an FSC product are guaranteed the wood comes from sustainably managed forests that have been independently monitored by auditors.

For SFL holders, it can mean leaving a certain number of trees behind in a clear-cut jack pine stand to protect a cold water fishery and wildlife habitat.

Miller, who has spent the better part of the year assembling his data for audit, says certification is a time-consuming, demanding and expensive process that can cost SFL holders between $150,000 and $200,000.

Independent auditors inspect their records, review fieldwork and interview local stakeholders such as First Nations and tourism operators.

There are also annual fees to maintain certification and a full-blown re-audit every five years.

Clergue's audit process begins this November, after which certification will either be immediately granted, denied or approved with conditions.

Miller says Clergue's current forest management planning processes--as required under the Crown Forest Sustainability Act--already come close to meeting FSC requirements.

"We all like to think we're doing more than the minimum," he says.

Among the aims of the certification process is recognizing and respecting other people's rights to the forest.

Miller says two areas of emphasis in their process will be to work out agreements with local First Nations, identifying possible economic development opportunities and ways of improving communications, as well as producing a conservation forest value report that identifies areas with unique features.

Today, certification in Ontario is no longer a voluntary process. The provincial government now requires all Sustainable Forest Licence (SFL) holders to be certified by the end of 2007, saying the intent is to ensure the province's forest industry is given preference in export markets.

Eventually, it's believed that those companies without certification will be shut out of the international marketplace since big lumber and home improvement retailers like Home Depot and Ikea will only buy a product stamped with an FSC logo.

Judging from conversations with Clergue's member companies, says Miller, meeting certification standards does not guarantee gaining any new markets, but merely keeping the customers they have.

www.algomaforest.com

By IAN ROSS

Northern Ontario Business