ITLAS complies with PEFC and FSC policy of buying wood coming from certified forests
ITLAS officially communicates that it does not (and never did) use timber and wooden derivates coming from Russia and Belarus in the making of its own products. The company, which is PEFCTM e FSC® certified, accepts, supports and fully shares the decisions and the reasons of both the certifying boards, meant to stop on an international level the use of certified timber coming from Russia and Belarus.
The International PEFCTM Council clarified that all wood coming from Russia and Belarus should be considered “conflict timber” and so it cannot be used in PEFCTM certified products. These are the words of the organization that promotes the system of forest certification: “We are extremely worried for the Russian government attack on Ukraine. The military occupation is completely in contrast with our fundamental values. This aggression provokes unspeakable pain and deaths for innocent people, including women and children. It also has an immediate, long-term destructive effect on the environment, on the forests and on the many people who depend on the woodlands for their living”.
PEFCTM says that this decision comes from and extraordinary meeting of its International Council. “Classifying the wood from Russia and Belarus as conflict timber is a consequence of the adoption of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution on aggression against Ukraine, which deplores with the utmost firmness the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine (...) and the involvement of Belarus ".
The FSC® international boards of directors declares it is “deeply worried about the Russian aggression of Ukraine” and confirms its solidarity towards all the victims of this violence. After thinking carefully at the potential consequences of the withdrawal of the certification, it decided to interrupt all commercial certificates in Russia and Belarus and to stop all controlled wood sources from both countries. “This means – says the note widespread by the board for forest certification – that the timber and the forest products coming from Russia and Belarus cannot be used in FSC® products or sold as di FSC® certified in any place in the world, until the end of all hostility”.
The organization declares that in order to go on protecting Russian forests it wil allow all those who had a forest management certificate to maintain their FSC® certification, but not to commercialize or sell certified FSC® wood. As Kim Carstenen, FSC® general manager says “We must act against the aggressor but at the same time we must fulfil our mission to protect the forests. We believe that stopping the commerce of controlled and FSC® certified materials, at the same time keeping the option of managing forests according to FSC® standards, could reach both goals”.
