FSC Friday in the Forest Institute
An international campaign “FSC Friday” aimed at drawing of the attention of society and business to the necessity of development of the environmentally and socially responsible forest use took place on September, 28th in the Forest Institute. Specialists of the Silver Taiga Foundation came to the meeting with the fifth-year students, who with a keen interest got familiar with the tasks of the voluntary forest certification according to the FSC system and FSC certification practice in our republic.
Silver Taiga Foundation ecologist Elena Popova told students about the origin of this initiative, main principles of sustainable forestry, observance of which have to be guaranteed by the certification. By means of specific examples she paid attention of the future forest sector specialists to the fact that the quality of the forest use and compliance with the principles of sustainability – which means also an aspiration of the user for getting a certificate – to a considerable extent depends on the sensibility of the market. Interestingly, on request of their teacher Andrey Krivoshein students brought to the meeting some examples of products certified according to the FSC system – juice packs, books, creams, etc. with an FSC logotype. Students had questions related to the fact that logotypes of different products contained different number and letters. The fact is that behind every of such logotypes there is a certificate with a unique number, which can be checked in the database on the website info.fsc.org. And the most important thing is that certificates are issued by an independent third party – an auditor.
Foundation coordinator working with the local communities Valentina Semyashkina dwelt upon the social aspects of certification. She showed through the practical examples from our republic that it’s not only business which is interested in the FSC certification and to which such certificate gives the possibility to export products to the sensitive European market. It’s also beneficial for the local residents, rural population of the taiga districts, because certification can be also considered as a protection mechanism defending the interests of the local community, including indigenous population.
The fifth-year students took interest in the topic of the meeting and seemed to be satisfied with the answers to their questions.
Translated by Irina Sokolova