Why in News?
- In recent years, climate change, Deforestation has become a critically sensitive issue worldwide, making essential for Forest Certification to regulate the entry and sale of forest-based products.
- At the Glasgow climate meeting in 2021, over 100 countries made a pledge to prevent, and start reversing, deforestation by 2030.
About Forest Certification-
- Forest Certification- It is a tool for forest monitoring, tracing and labelling timber, wood and pulp products and non-timber forest products.
- It is a process through which quality of management from environmental, social and economic perspectives is judged against a series of agreed standards.
- There are two key international standards for sustainable management of forests and forest-based products,
- One has been formed by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
- The other by Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certifications (PEFC).
- FSC certification is more popular and in demand, and also more costly.
- Two Types of Certifications-
- Forest management (FM).
- Chain of Custody (CoC).
- CoC certification is meant to guarantee the traceability of a forest product such as timber throughout the supply chain from origin to market.
- Need-
- Forests absorb huge amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted in several economic activities, keeping a check on global warming.
- Various Countries are trying to avoid consumption of any product that might be the result of deforestation or illegal logging.
- And thus, Europe and the United States have passed laws that regulate the entry and sale of forest-based products in their markets, creating the need for Forest Certification.
Forest Certification in India-
- The forest certification industry has been working in India for the last 15 years.
- Presently, forests in only Uttar Pradesh are certified.
- Forty-one divisions of the UP-Forest Corporation (UPFC) are PEFC-certified, meaning they are being managed as per the standards endorsed by PEFC.
- Some other states also obtained certifications, but later dropped out.
- Forest certification in India is still at an early stage and thus the nation has not been able to make use of the benefits of forest certification.
India Specific Standards-
- India permits the export of only processed wood, not timber. In fact, the timber harvested from Indian forests is not sufficient to meet the domestic demand for housing, furniture, and other products.
- India’s forests contribute around five million cubic metres of wood every year. Almost 85% of the demand for wood and wood products is met by trees outside forests (ToF). About 10 percent is imported.
- Indian wood import bill is Rs 50,000-60,000 crore per year.
- Since ToF are so crucial, new certification standards are being developed for their sustainable management.
- PEFC already has certification for TOF and in 2022, FSC came up with India-specific standards that involved certification for ToF.