Christmas Recycling

The new online forest certification system aims to provide a simple and cost-effective solution to assist the UK’s small and medium-sized private forest owners to become PEFC-certified. The new tool is designed to help increase the UK’s certified forest area and boost the supply of certified material to the UK primary processing sector and its customers. The online tool was launched at a special Press Lunch in central London during a rare UK gathering of major figures from PEFC, including PEFC International Chairman, William Street, and CEO Ben Gunneberg, to discuss key issues surrounding the global forestry, construction, paper and packaging industries. While PEFC forest certification has been established in the UK for five years, it has long been recognized that a cost-effective certification solution was required to enable smaller woodland owners to participate in certification.

American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) President and CEO Donna Harman issued the following statement regarding the European Commission's recent proposal to integrate land use and forestry sector into its Climate and Energy Framework. “The European Commission (EC) recently released its proposal to integrate the land use and forestry sector (LULUCF) into the European Union's 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. The EC's proposal, released on July 20, reiterates its current accounting practice for bioenergy, with emissions related to biomass use reported and accounted for under LULUCF, i.e. biomass use in the energy sector is zero rated, to avoid double-counting. “This proposal reinforces the need for the U.S. to appropriately recognize the benefits of biomass energy. The uncertainty caused by EPA is putting the U.S. out of step with the rest of the world, and puts our American workers and job creators at a competitive disadvantage.

On 1 February, Södra will launch a new package of forestry services. The new services will facilitate forest ownership and present opportunities to improve the profitability of members' forest estates. The new package includes a financial advisory service and improved digital services. The new package will be launched on 1 February and includes an advisory service to facilitate ownership transfers, as well as cash flow analysis and property valuation services. The forest estate agreement is a new service for forest owners who seek secure, profitable and professional management for their entire estate. "This is a comprehensive package of services, designed to meet the needs of Södra's members. The requirements of forest owners - as well as technological solutions - change over time, and these new services represent a major step forward toward a new and improved member offering. The aim is to make active and profitable forestry easier," says Håkan Larsson, President of the Södra Skog business area.