2011

The Green Certificate to All State Forests

JSC “Latvijas valsts meži” has completed certification of its forests according to the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) certification scheme. The independent auditors, who inspected all 8 forest management divisions of “Latvijas valsts meži”, have concluded that the company practices a balanced forest management in line with the environmental, social, and economic requirements.

The certification of the forest management was performed by two different international certification organisations (BM TRADA and SGS), and the certificates are valid for 5 years, i.e. till year 2016. Thereby, every buyer of timber in Latvia or abroad can be sure that the certified timber and its products bearing the PEFC eco label have been produced in accordance with the highest ecological, social, and ethical standards.

Previously, the company also received the PEFC Timber Supply Chain Certificate which allows delivering of certified timber to the processing enterprises. Currently, the number of timber-processing enterprises opting for certification of their product supply chain according to the PEFC certification scheme is growing rapidly in Latvia at the moment, and, therefore, there is an increasing demand for such type of timber.

Roberts Strīpnieks, Board Chairman of JSC “Latvijas valsts meži”: „The certification of all eight forest management divisions will increase the supplies of the timber bearing the green quality label to our customers and help them maintain and strengthen the positions of the Latvian timber products in the global market.”

PEFC is the largest of the world’s green forest certification schemes: 30 national PEFC certification schemes, acknowledged by the PEFC Council, have been approved, and approximately 239 million hectares of forest have been certified in accordance with the national PEFC standards. 8470 enterprises all around the world have had their supply chains certified. The PEFC-certified timber is marketable in export markets which are essential to Latvia – Germany, The United Kingdom, Japan.