National Standard System: Need

for Forest Management Standard

and Forest Certification in India

Presented by :-

Manu Jose Mattam

Network for Certification and

Conservation of Forests (NCCF)

Presented at :-

4th National Standards Conclave ,

1st May 2017

Session outline

Need for Sectoral Standard Development: having a country specific Forest Management Certification

Standard

Threats to Forests

Forest Certification as a management tool for Sustainable Forest Management

Forest Certification and Chain of Custody Certification are necessary to promote trade of wood and

wood based products

Existing Forest Certification Schemes

Status of Forest Certification in India

Challenges to Forest Certification

Initiatives by the Network for Certification and Conservation Forests (NCCF) to promote forest certification

Going forward..

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Session 4: Standards in goods:

Addressing issues in a policy framework

Sectoral Standard Development: A case of Country Specific Forest

Management Certification

Developing standards to promote trade of wood and wood based

products and to promote the sustainable and responsible use of forests

and forest resources

Meeting the requirements of markets and trade, policy makers, civil

society etc. in the management of forest resources

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Deforestation

Threats to Forests

Land Use Conversion

indianexpress.com

Forest degradation Illegal logging

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Drivers of deforestation and forest degradations

■ Economic factors is most permanent underlying causes of deforestation

■ Two major types of Drivers

o Underlying (Social economic political and/ or cultural factors.)

o Direct (agriculture, logging, mining and infrastructure expansion)

Strategies for Reducing Deforestation

Forest Protection

• Establishment of Protected areas

Sustainable Forest Management

• 100% Forests can’t be under strict protection

• SFM can have significant carbon benefits Biodiversity, and community benefits

• SFM is also referred as improved Forest Management (IFM)

• E.g.- National working plan code 2014 for Sustainable Forest Management in India

Conservation Financing

• REDD+

• Debt-for- Nature Swaps

• Payment for Ecosystem Services Schemes

• E.g. TEEB

• The Forest Products Industry worth US$ 178 billion per year

• More than 32 million acres of natural forest are logged worldwide annuallynually

• Most of the wood logged is through illegally and unsustainably manner

• Both producer and consumer countries can help

• Two aspects of responsible trade

oDemand-Side Management (production side: Resource exploitation)

• FLEGT(Forest Law Enforcement in Governance and Trade) • Lacey Act, 2008• illegal Logging prohibition Act 2011, Australia • Malaysian Timber regulation Act• Brazilian timber regulation Act

o Supply Side

Forest Certification

Responsible Trade

Forest certification: a market based non-regulatory tool designed to promote

responsible forest management.

Forest owners voluntarily request inspection of their forest area against pre-defined

independent forest management standards

Outcomes assess if the forest area is managed sustainably

It’s a way to show to the consumers the impacts of forest management activities on

environment and society.

Forest Certification8

FAO defined it as a voluntary process whereby an independent third party (the “certifier”) assesses

the quality of forest management and production against a set of requirements (“standards”)

predetermined by a public or private certification organization

Forest Management Unit (FMU) certification:

A process leading to the issuance of a

certificate by an independent party, which

verifies that an area of forest/plantation is

managed as per the defined standards.

Chain of Custody certification (CoC) :

A process of tracking wood products from

the certified forest to the point of sale to

ensure that product originated from a

certified forest.

Forest Certification - definition 9

How it works ?10

Components of Forest Certification

Environmentally Appropriate

Socially Beneficial Economically

viable

Triple bottom-line

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Need of Forest certification

Some way or the other, we are losing our forests - Since 1990, Asia Pacific has lost 38 million hectares of forestland (FAO, State

of the World’s Forests 2011)

Unsustainable forest management still dominates. Only 13 per cent of natural production forests in the Asia Pacific are

considered to be under sustainable management (Status of Tropical Forest Management 2011. ITTO Technical Series No 38)

Performance of the forest industry sector is predicted to accelerate in the coming years. As such, Illegal and unsustainable

trade in timber requires a transnational response.

Demand for responsibly sourced products is growing.

Countries in Asia Pacific are increasingly committed to responsible forestry and trade

India’s export of wood and wood products reached an all time high of US $ 453 million during 2010-11 showing a growth of

20% over previous years. Forestry and logging contributes to 1.2% of India’ GDP (Economic survey, Ministry of Finance, 2011)

About 8 % of the World’s Forests are now certified, either through global schemes, or homegrown certification standards and

systems

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Existing Forest certification schemes:

International Schemes:

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)

Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)

Regional & Country specific Forest certification Schemes:

American Tree Farm System (ATFS)

Canadian Standards Association (CSA)

China National Forest Certification Scheme (CNFCS) endorsed by PEFC

American Tree Farm System (ATFS) Australian Forestry Standard (AFS)

Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF), India (scheme under development)

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Forest Certification in India

Total certified forest area in India so far – 811,816.44 ha*

12 Forest Management certificates* issued till date

State Government Forests Corporation

Farm forestry initiatives

Rubber plantations

Bamboo Plantations

367 Chain of custody certificates

Pulp & Paper Industries

Wood and wood based industries (plywood, furniture, MDF. Handicraft etc.)

Printings and Packaging

Saw Mills

*Under FSC® Interim standards

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Limited and uncertain benefits in domestic markets

Absence of approved and functional national standards

Lack of cooperation among stakeholders and market

Lack of government incentives towards forest certification

Lack of policy guidelines from the Government of India to third party, voluntary and private

certification schemes

High cost of certification, in particular to Small and Medium Enterprises.

Lack of awareness about certification at both national level and local level

Limited access of small producers to forest certification

Inhibition of the Forestry hierarchy to third part assessment of forest management against the

international standards for forest certification

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Challenges of Forest Certification in India

Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests

NCCF : not for profit organization, registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860

Established with a goal to develop country’s sustainable forests management standard and at the

same time making the Indian wood and forest fibre based industry competent globally.

NCCF: launched on 16th march 2015 through an ‘International Conference on Forest Certification –

positioning India’ held at New Delhi.

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NCCF Stakeholder group

Industry

Social

Environment

Industry and association –

o ITC PSPD

o CII

o EPCH

o Greenply

o Century Ply

o IPRITI

o IPMA etc.

Environment -

o ICFRE

o IIFM

o Ministry of Agriculture and

farmers welfare

o WWF

Social -

o BWI

o STADD

o Forest officers in

individual capacity

Objectives

To develop National Standards for Sustainable Forest Management, TOF, as well as products and

services specific standards conforming to national statutory and legal obligations.

To provide a link between responsible production and responsible consumption and help the

consumers to make socially and environmentally sound buying decisions.

To promote responsible trade in forestry sector and offering specific consideration to the unique

needs of small and family forest owners.

To bridge the gap between policy makers and practitioners including entrepreneurs on issues that

emerge on trade and other related aspects of the forest products and services through consultation

meetings, awareness raising, conferences and workshops etc.

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Stage 1:

Stakeholder Mapping

Stage 2:

Expression of interest

Stage 3:

Announcement of standard setting and

invitations

Stage 4:

Creation of SDG & Working Group

Committee

Stage 5:

Creation of draft base standard

document by TWG

Stage 6:

Extended Stakeholder outreach & revision of

standard

Stage 7:

Review & revision of base document and submission to SDG-

TWG

Stage 8:

Public Consultation (60 days)

Stage 9 :

Pilot Testing

Stage 10:

Consensus Building on Final draft

Stage 11:

Formal approval of the standard from Governing Body and Publication of

Standard

Standard Development Process followed by NCCF

NCCF : Development of Forest Certification Standard

Development of country-specific guidelines and forest management certification standards is our

major institutional effort through a multi stakeholder Standard Development Group (SDG).

The SDG has got active professional support from the key forest based stakeholders such as the

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) through its premier institutions- IIFM,

ICFRE, IPIRITI, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Export Promotions Council for

Handicrafts (EPCH), ITC Ltd, forest based industries and their aassociations, business groups, NGOs

(social and environment related), workers and trade unions, and certification bodies etc.

PEFC, IUCN, WWF contributing significantly in the process of developing Standard for certification

NCCF’s Draft Forest Management Certification Standard ( V1.0) : Structure

Themes – 6

Principles – 14

Criteria – 61

Indicators – 230

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Draft NCCF FM Certification Standard ( V1.1)

After extensive consultation process, online as well as through

regional consultation meetings , the draft standard has been

pilot tested in the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and

Assam

Findings of the pilot testing results being incorporated in the draft

document, before eventual adoption of the Standard by the

Governing Body of NCCF.

NCCF hopes to release the standard for public use by mid June

2017.

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Advantages of National Standard (NCCF)

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Helps in verification of the data collected by National agencies like SFDs, FSI and others.

Contributes towards the implementation efficiency of the existing government

schemes, and other existing

policies.

India has 16 types of forests, a domestic certification scheme

provides flexibility in addressing the variability.

Can be used as a result based financing tool.

Forest certification can beused as a tool to developsingle window clearancesfor land issues, harvestingactivities, grievanceredressal, etc.

Going forward….

NCCF has already ventured into development of further sectoral standards based on thesustainability agenda, with standards for Trees outside Forests (ToF), NTFPs and Wetlands andProtected Areas

Market and Industry driven program - but need to co-opt the support of Central ministries like theMinistry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Ministryof Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Textiles, other ministries, State Governments andother stakeholders to promote development and uptake of these country specific standards.

NABCB/QCI have an important role in developing a system of Accreditation for Standards andSDOs

Country specific standards will promote “Make in India” and Skill Development programmes,apart from facilitating trade of wood and wood based products

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Thank you !!

Contact us-

Manu Jose Mattam

Network for Certification and Conservation

of Forests (NCCF)

manujose@gicia.org

info@nccf.in ; www.nccf.in

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