Status and possibilities on forest certification in Sri Lanka

Status and possibilities on forest certification in Sri Lanka

Abstract of a seminar presentation

Manuri Gamage

Forest certification found its roots in the concern over rapid tropical deforestation in the 1980s and the 1990s. It is a process which results in a written certification being issued by an independent third party, attesting to the location and management status of a forest which is producing timber. Forest certification also provides consumers with a credible guarantee that the product comes from environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable sustainably managed forests.

Sri Lanka has adopted only FSC certification by an independent, non-profit organization, formed in an effort to establish a global system for certifying that products come from well-managed forests. Only three multinational certification bodies accredited by FSC are currently issuing certification in Sri Lanka.

At present, certification is confined mainly to the rubber plantation sector in Sri Lanka. Only four such companies currently hold FSC forest management certification, out of large-scale plantation companies in Sri Lanka. Forty-two percent of the country's plantations are owned by small holders. Therefore, this group plays a key role in the rubber industry as well as in supplying raw materials to wood-based industries. None of the small-scale rubber plantations in Sri Lanka are certified. Out of the many manufactures only nine companies have obtain the chain of custody certification.

Facilitating group certification for small rubber plantation owners to obtain forest certification, encouraging certified plantation owners to focus on high-end species such as teak and mahogany where there is great potential to capture price premiums, building awareness among plantation owners of advantages of obtaining the certification other than price premiums, seeking new export markets for the certified timber and timber products, obtain approval for the FSC National standards and implement within the country, encouraging local organisations to obtain accreditation from FSC as a certification body, developing an internal certification scheme with its own standards can be mentioned as some of the potentials in forest certification in the country.