Canada has a stable and secure supply of certified wood fiber. This independent verification provides added assurance of responsible forest practices from a country with some of the world’s toughest and well-enforced regulatory frameworks for forestry.
In Canada there are three major, credible certification programs that provide certification of good forest management activities. They also provide chain-of-custody certification that tracks sustainably produced forest products through the supply chain, and provide the ability to label products to communicate to consumers exactly what they are buying
- Canadian Standards Association (CSA)
- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
- Sustainable Forestry Initiative® Program (SFI)
These programs promote sound forest management through principles, criteria and objectives that are viewed as the basis of sustainable forest management by governments around the world.
In North America the CSA, FSC and SFI programs are recognized by many government agencies and corporate buyers with procurement policies that include a preference for certified products. Globally these programs are endorsed either explicitly or through the FSC or PEFC international programs and are accepted by governments as assurance of legal and sustainable forest products. This recognizes different certification systems that provide substantially equivalent forest management standards, and provides a global supply of credibly certified wood products.
If you are individual consumer, watch for ‘made in Canada’ forest products with any of these labels on the product or wrapper. The PEFC labelled product could contain material covered under the CSA or SFI standards.
If you are large buyer or manufacturer, you can search databases provided by each certification standard that list the certified products available. Then when a shipment arrives be sure to check the documents that accompany it, as these will indicate where the wood-related material has come from.
Other Related Reading
Forest Certification in Canada: The Programs, Similarities and Differences