{"id":229795,"date":"2023-03-04T20:08:17","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T14:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=229795"},"modified":"2023-03-04T20:08:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-04T14:38:17","slug":"our-forests-are-under-threat-heres-how-they-are-certified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/our-forests-are-under-threat-heres-how-they-are-certified\/","title":{"rendered":"Our forests are under threat \u2014 here\u2019s how they are certified"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cOur forests are under threat \u2014 here\u2019s how they are certified\u201d <\/strong>published in The Hindu <\/strong>on 4th March 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS-3 – Environment – Afforestation<\/p>\n

Relevance:<\/strong> Conservation and management of forests<\/p>\n

News- <\/strong>The article explains the certification process of forests.<\/p>\n

What is the meaning of forest certification?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It offers a multi-layer audit system that seeks to authenticate the origin, legality, and sustainability of forest-based products such as timber, furniture, handicraft, paper and pulp, rubber, and many more.<\/p>\n

What are the better methods of forest conservation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Forests should be harvested in a sustainable manner <\/strong>for the products. In fact, periodic harvesting of trees<\/strong> is necessary and healthy for forests. Trees have a lifespan, beyond which they die and decay.<\/p>\n

After a certain age, the capacity of trees to absorb carbon dioxide<\/strong> gets saturated. Younger and fresher trees are more efficient at capturing carbon dioxide<\/strong>. The problem arises only when trees are felled indiscriminately.<\/p>\n

What is the status of the global forest certification industry?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The three-decade-old global certification industry<\/strong> began as a way to establish. It depended upon independent third-party audits<\/strong>, whether forests were being managed in a sustainable manner.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are two major international standards <\/strong>for sustainable management<\/strong> of forests and forest-based products. \u00a0One has been developed by the Forest Stewardship Council, or FSC.<\/strong> The other is developed by Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certifications, or PEFC<\/strong>. FSC certification is more popular and in demand, and also more expensive.<\/p>\n

Organisations like FSC or PEFC are only the developers and owners of standards like the International Organisation of Standardisation (ISO) or Bureau of International Standards (BIS). <\/strong><\/p>\n

They are not involved in the evaluation and auditing of the processes<\/strong> being followed by the forest managers or manufacturers or traders of forest-based products. That is the job of certification bodies authorised by FSC or PEFC.<\/p>\n

The certification bodies often subcontract their work to smaller organisations<\/strong>. PEFC does not insist on the use of its own standards<\/strong>. Instead, it endorses the \u2018national\u2019 standard<\/strong>s of any country if they are aligned with its own.<\/p>\n

Two main types of certification are on offer: forest management (FM) and Chain of Custody (CoC)<\/strong>. CoC certification is meant to guarantee the traceability of a forest product like timber throughout the supply chain from origin to market.<\/p>\n

What is the status of forest certification in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The forest certification industry has been operating in India for the last 15 years. Currently, forests in only Uttar Pradesh\u00a0 are certified. They are PEFC-certified<\/strong>. These standards have been developed by the New Delhi<\/a>-based nonprofit Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some other states too obtained certification, but subsequently dropped out. The Bhamragad forest division in Maharashtra was the first to obtain FSC certification for forest management.<\/p>\n

However, all of these expired over time.<\/p>\n

Many agroforestry projects<\/strong>, such as those run by ITC, and several paper mills too have forest management certification.<\/p>\n

There are a large number of CoC certifications<\/strong>, but the dropout rate is 40%.<\/strong> As of now, there are 1,527 valid CoC certifications by FSC, and 1,010 that are suspended, expired, or have been terminated.<\/p>\n

What are efforts by the government to develop India-specific standards?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The government has made efforts to define national standards for the management of forests.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on the recommendations of an expert committee in 2005<\/strong>, the Environment Ministry had asked relevant institutions like the Bhopal-based Indian Institute of Forest Management to draw up national forest standards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A draft Cabinet note <\/strong>seeking the government\u2019s approval for setting up such standards was drawn up. However, the effort did not come to fruition.<\/p>\n

When the NCCF <\/strong>came into being in 2015, offering PEFC certification<\/strong> in India, the Environment Ministry nominated an officer on the governing board. It gave it official legitimacy.<\/strong> But the nomination was later withdrawn.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Ministry associated itself with FSC<\/strong>, by launching its new India standards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The role of private certification agencies<\/strong> has come under sustained criticism. So, the Ministry has restarted efforts to develop official national forest standards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The government says the indigenous system of certifications will be simple, transparent, and easy to adopt<\/strong>, even by small farmers and tree growers. The benchmarks will adhere to internationally accepted norms,<\/strong> but will take into account India\u2019s national circumstances.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cOur forests are under threat \u2014 here\u2019s how they are certified\u201d published in The Hindu on 4th March 2023. Syllabus: GS-3 – Environment – Afforestation Relevance: Conservation and management of forests News- The article explains the certification process of forests. What is the meaning of forest certification?… Continue reading Our forests are under threat \u2014 here\u2019s how they are certified<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10498],"class_list":["post-229795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":12,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700117405},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}