The Portucel Soporcel Group, in its capacity as official sponsor of the Forest Stewardship Council Initiative, participated in its launch, which took place on December 6, in Lisbon. The FSC National Initiative was promoted by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Portugal. The Group firmly believes that reaching this initiative’s main objective – to obtain recognition for the national FSC forest certification standard until the end of 2008 – is very important for the country and for the paper sector.

Through this initiative the WWF also aims to increase the area of Portuguese forest certified by the FSC, to monitor certification projects considered strategic and to work in the national and foreign markets for FSC products, which are typically extremely demanding in terms of environmental preservation and where the Group is present with its high quality products.

We would like to stress that the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Portucel Soporcel Group, Mr. José Honório, is part of the Honour Committee of the FSC National Initiative, and that some of our executives are members of the Advisory Board (which will steer the Initiative’s activities until the respective Directors are elected) and of the Plantations Technical Committee.

Finally, we remind that the objective of this standard is to certify the sustainable management of the forest, i.e., to make sure that the practices adopted in the day-to-day management of the forestry assets are economically viable, environmentally responsible and socially acceptable. The aim is thus not merely to certify any exceptional environmental value, but to guarantee the excellence and long-standing application of practices (forestry and other) in the various existing types of forest (hence the eucalyptus plantations may, with all merit and legitimacy, be the object of this kind of certification).