Certification
2023 Year-end
Certification data is constantly in flux. This map is a “snapshot in time” taken on the date shown. Changes to certification information take time to be communicated from the certification bodies to the standards, which is then reflected in this map via annual updates. Corrections to the information shown here are welcome and should be reported to the appropriate standard (CSA, FSC or SFI) for resolution.
Source: The data source for this map is the detailed Canadian Certification Status Report located on this website. The Status Report and this map are updated yearly. This map was created for the Forest Products Association of Canada by Dave Baldwin of Spatialworks (http://www.spatialworks.com).
To Use This Map:
To navigate the map, simply click on a province of interest within the national map. A detailed provincial map will appear. Then click on any of the coloured blocks of “tenured forest lands” within that province for more details about that particular certification. A Certification Summary will appear in the right column providing detailed information on:
- Company name (this is the company holding the tenure certificate)
- Area (division) name
- Standard certified to (CSA, FSC, SFI)
- Certified area (in hectares)
- Link to the company’s website
- Link to the most recent certification audit report and/or SFM Plan for the area.
To find further detailed information about the certificate, such as the public audit summary report, please visit the appropriate standard website:
CSA: PEFC Database
FSC: FSC Database
SFI: SFI Database and SFI Audit Summary Reports
What is forest tenure?
Tenure—socially defined agreement held by individuals or groups, recognized by legal statutes or customary practice, regarding the “bundle of rights and duties” of ownership, holding, access, and/or use of a particular land unit or the associated resources (such as individual trees, plant species, water, and minerals). (source: National Forestry Database).
In Canada, 94% of forests are publicly owned. This means that the provincial governments provide tenure licensing agreements to forest product companies. Forest management licences issued in Canada are either area-based tenure (a licence agreement based on a specified area of land under management) or volume-based tenure (a licence agreement based on a specified volume of wood to be harvested). The type of tenure a company is granted depends on the provincial government.
How are tenures for harvest volumes (instead of area) shown on the map?
In most cases certification applies to an entire forest area held under an area-based tenure. However, there can also be several volume-based tenures held by multiple companies within a particular forest area. In that case the proportion to which the certification applies may be less than the entire forest area (see detailed tenure maps for proportions). The proportions allocated to companies within an area are shown in tables on the detailed tenure maps.
How do I source certified forest products?
To source certified forest products of a particular forest products company, visit the statistics sections of the websites of the three internationally recognized certification standards:
pefc.org (for CSA information) www.ca.fsc.org or www.fsc.org, www.forests.org
Other
If you have questions that were not addressed in our FAQ area, please email: info@fpac.ca