Project Update:
FSC and Fairtrade pilot project distinguishes small and community products in the marketplace
By Shoana Humphries, Social Policy Manager, FSC
FSC and Fairtrade International have been working hard to bring the first dual-labeled products to market through a joint project with funding partner ICCO. Dual-labeling provides incentives such as improved market access and fair pricing for FSC-certified small producers in the Global South.
Learn more: http://www.fsc.org/dualcert.html
Wooden floor manufacturers Kährs of Sweden announced that they would be placing orders with SSC Forestry for FSC and Fairtrade dual-labelled timber grown by smallholders in Chile‟s Curacautin Valley. Kährs expressed their pride in being the first company to place an order for this FSC and Fairtrade timber from Chile. “We are proud to be able to contribute to this development. Our hope is that we can help alleviate poverty and restore biodiversity, through offering the first flooring made of FSC and Fairtrade certified wood in the world,” says Per Skårner, CEO of Kährs.
The Curacautin Valley was once a prosperous forestry area that had lost much of its industry due to unsustainable forestry practices, resulting in large-scale unemployment, landscape alterations, habitat destruction, changes in water flow, and negative impacts on the livelihoods of the indigenous Mapuche people.
SSC Forestry Group of Sweden has help re-establish the industry by building a new sawmill in the valley, providing forest education to the local community, and managing an FSC group certificate that meets the eligibility criteria for small and low intensity managed forests.
Read this and other smallholder case studies at http://www.fsc.org/sh_casestudies.html
