70 | Feature: Sustainable Hardwood Certification
SUMMARY
■The SHC is designed for small-scale forest ownership
■It was initiated by AHEC ■It is suitable for privately-owned forests where very low intensity management is practiced
■The target is to deliver the first SHC hardwood before the start of 2025
AHEC UNVEILS CERTIFICATION PROJECT
With certified sustainability and legality increasingly a default requirement in the global timber trade, a new approach to certification is evolving in the US. Mike Jeffree reports
A certification scheme is under development in the US designed for small- scale forest ownership and operating models which are unsuited to existing systems, such as FSC and PEFC. The aim, said the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), which has initiated and is leading the Sustainable Hardwood Certification project (SHC), is to assure end-users that hardwood from low-intensity managed forests is legally and sustainably sourced.
“SHC responds to the technical constraints to certification in situations where wood supply is from vast numbers of small private family forests, where owners harvest once in a generation, practice very low intensity management and are not driven by commercial timber demand,” said AHEC. “Hardwood forests managed in this way offer considerable benefits in terms of enhanced carbon sequestration, resilience to climate change, biodiversity, soil and watershed protection, and rural development. The diverse hardwoods from these forests are also well-suited to use in durable, high-value, long-lasting products with major potential to contribute to carbon storage and climate mitigation.”
Above: The US has over 9 million private forest owners TTJ | November/December 2022 |
www.ttjonline.com
The US has more than 9 million private forest owners, the vast majority holding small plots and practicing low-intensity harvesting. Established certification schemes are unsuited to such fragmented forestry environments, said AHEC, due to the fact that they impose
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