Government 'soon' to come out with forest certification policy

KOCHI: The Union government is likely to come out with a forest certification policy "very soon" which would be applicable to all states and Union Territories, a senior WWF-India official said.

The new policy is expected to be ready in a month's time, T R Manoharan, Head Forest Programme WWF India, told reporters here.

Forest certification is a mechanism for forest monitoring, tracing and labelling timber, wood and pulp products and non-timber forest products where the quality of management from environmental, social, economic perspectives is judged against a series of agreed standards, B S Corrie, additional principal chief conservator of forests, who was also present there said.

The Indian Institute of Forest Management was working on Criteria and Indicators (C&I) for sustainable forest management since the last 10 years.

C&I was presently being field tested in various parts of the country, Manoharan said, adding, some of these indicators are likely to be incorporated in the new policy.

Forest certification in India is still at a growing stage.

No forests in India are certified except 644 hectares of private rubber plantations in Tamil Nadu which secured 'FSC' Forest Management Unit Certificate, Manoharan said.

To promote forest certification, WWF, one of the world's largest conservation organisations, has advocated a "step wise approach" and developed suitable methods and tool kits which can be used by forest or plantation managers and traders.