In May the WWF International – World Wide Fund for Nature held a meeting in Portugal on the subject of “Small forest owners and credible forest certification”.

The main objective of this visit, which was sponsored by the Portucel Soporcel Group, was to discuss and propose solutions that would enable small forest owners to achieve credible certification of their forests.

The meeting was held at the Grande Hotel do Luso, where the participants also stayed. The programme took place under the WWF banner and among other things addressed the main problems related to the subject, particularly “Fire prevention and biodiversity conservation in small forest owners landscapes”, “Small forest owner certification schemes”, and “What models for small forest owners’ landscape management?”.

The first field visits, which were organised with the collaboration of the Centre Forestry Division of Aliança Florestal (AF), enabled the visitors to get to know the real situation in a part of the country that is characterised by the presence of small or very small properties.

In Mortágua the local Forest Producers’ Association (APFM) gave a presentation on the establishment of a ZIF (Forest Intervention Zone), as a way of creating the conditions for a kind of management that can lead to a certification process.

In Pampilhosa da Serra, the extremely fragmented ownership of the land and the large number of recent forest fires are clear signs of some of the main dramas facing the search for suitable models to certify the local owners.

The participants also visited Unimadeiras – a wood suppliers’ cooperative that is currently in the process of preparing towards certification with help from an industrial company – as an example of a practical application in Portugal of FSC’s group certification programme.

Before the visit the participants were given a variety of discussion documents, and the presentations on the second and third days provided additional data for an informed debate on the issue of small owners and the various possible solutions regarding group certification.

The Portucel Soporcel Group staff who took part in the meetings began their presentation by giving an overview of forest production in Portugal, including the types of ownership, the average size of properties and the main species and products. They then presented the Group itself and the certification process they are undergoing. To end the communication, they described both the constraints and driving forces linked to certification, and mentioned a whole series of issues that constitute challenges for certification in Portugal.





After giving a very complete picture of the forest sector in Portugal and its evolution, the Celpa representative described the Portuguese standard for sustainable forest management systems, which is recognised by PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes).

The PEFC representative then presented the Finnish forest certification system, which is a national initiative in which the government authorities play a major role and provide a great deal of support. It requires applicants to belong to an association in order to achieve certification, and aspects such as training, monitoring and the accreditation of service providers and wood suppliers are mandatory for certified paper companies.

The FSC representative talked about the various instruments that can be used to promote the certification of small forest owners: group certification, the SLIMF (Small and Low Intensity Management Forest) programme, and the modular approach using progressive schemes designed to fulfil the FSC Principles (like Smart Step from Smartwood), which are considered to be very important in business-to-business communication.

In order to illustrate the way in which certifying bodies make a variety of mechanisms for certifying small-scale areas available to their clients, the Smartwood representative presented a varied range of programmes – group certification, “Smart Step”, controlled wood, and “Smart Logging” – and briefly described the characteristics of each one.

The final discussion summed up the various aspects considered as relevant when it comes to working out the solutions that urgently need to come up with: the role of the Government; grouping together in associations or federations, or other formats promoted by the Government; weighing up whether to employ an analysis based on a landscape level or on a site level; identifying stakeholders as key factors in the process; identifying the current state-of-art and the goal one it is hoped the process will lead to; and finally, the use of the various available instruments (forest certification, progressive approach, certification of wood suppliers).

The issue of optimising biodiversity and the functionality of ecosystems in a small property landscape was the object of an important debate in which everyone took part. It was clear that there must be a coherent approach to a given geographic area, and that the need to preserve both biodiversity at the local level and mosaics in the landscape should not be underestimated. Once again Government leadership, the choice of the right interlocutors at the landscape level, public participation processes, and the demand for certified products are all factors that must be taken into account when it comes to defining the right instruments to answer to the needs in certification of small properties and taking the opportunities to bring about change.

The Portuguese participants in the meeting were challenged to organise themselves in such a way as to work out a biodiversity approach for use in the certification of small-scale areas – possibly within the overall scope of a national certification initiative.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that holding the meeting at Luso also made it possible to go on a pleasant visit to the Buçaco National Woods and to attend a delightful dinner at the Hotel Palace, which was hosted by the Portucel Soporcel Group and enjoyed by all.

This was another example of the initiatives that have been taking place as part of a relationship that has been reinforced over time between the Portucel Soporcel Group and WWF International – World Wide Fund for Nature. This non-governmental organisation is internationally known for its involvement in environmental issues, and the Group is very pleased to have established a recent partnership with it in fundamental issues related to forest certification, such as biodiversity and public participation.

Without prejudice to the official conclusions of the Study Visit, which will be published later, we can say that WWF - International took note of and recognised Portugal’s specific special situation, both as regards the social relevance of its forest plantations (which are often in the hands of small and very small farmers and owners), and in terms of the extremely scattered nature of forest ownership (which causes obvious difficulties in responding to the classic demands of forest certification).





“Plantation Study Tour to Portugal”

List of Participants



Companies:

UPM Kymmene

 Päivi Salpakivi

Mondi


 Peter Gardiner

Stora Enso


 Ragnar Friberg




 Pedro Lencart




 Lucia Saldanha



Portucel Soporcel Group

 João Soares




 Paula Guimarães




 Artur Almada e Melo




 José Luis Carvalho




 Serafim Tavares (Raiz)



ENFE (European Network of Forest Entrepreneurs)  Barrie Hudson

FSC


 Pina Gervassi

Smartwood


 Richard Donovan

PEFC


 Auvo Kaivola

CELPA


 Paulo Canaveira





WWF:

WWF MedPO


 Vera Santos

WWF MedPO

 Luís Silva

WWF International

 Margareta Renstrom

WWF Chili (Valdivia)

 Rodrigo Catalan