Driving sustainable forestry in Russia

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STORA ENSO OYJ  Press Release 14 December 2006 at 09.00

Driving sustainable forestry in Russia

Helsinki, Finland, 14 December 2006: A coalition of two Russian 
logging companies, four of the world’s largest users of paper 
products and one of the most important paper producers today 
released a project report “From Russia … with Transparency” 
documenting the key success factors in enhancing business 
practices, labour safety, and sustainable forestry in the 
Russian forest sector. The report is the outcome of a three-year 
joint effort to improve environmental and social performance in 
the Russian wood supply chain. 

Together with the Russian partners work was done to improve 
safety training for forestry workers, introduce new logging 
technology, apply for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest 
certification, and implement new guidelines and reporting 
practices. The work was observed and the findings were reviewed 
by Transparency International and the Russian Karelian Research 
Center.

The project partners span the entire supply chain from the 
Russian forests to international paper and board markets. The 
Tikhvin-Chalna Project received its name from the communities 
where the Russian logging companies, Russkiy Les (Tikhvin) and 
Shuyales (Chalna) are located. The paper producer is Stora Enso 
and the three publisher partners are Axel Springer, The Random 
House Group UK, and Time Inc. Tetra Pak represents liquid food 
and beverage carton manufacturing in the project team. 

Positive feedback from external observers

"The project team should be congratulated for addressing the 
issue of legality and business ethics in the forest sector," 
said Kenneth Rosenbaum of Transparency International’s Forest 
Integrity Network. The project's objective for legal matters, 
including business ethics, was to create guidelines and 
implement them. “In the future, the partners will need to give 
some thought to how they will measure the success of their 
programmes of business ethics."

Galina Kozyreva, Senior Researcher of the Karelian Research 
Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences concurs: “The results 
are reviewed in the context of current legislation, corporate 
guidelines and international standards of sustainable forestry. 
The project partners' progressive third-party verifications 
increase the credibility and transparency of the supply chain.” 

Ensuring legal origin of wood and sound business practices

The legal origin of wood and integrity of business practices are 
addressed through improved business guidelines and a third-party 
verified wood traceability system to monitor the legal origin of 
wood. Stora Enso's traceability system in Russia includes 
annually more than 200 field audits of logging sites, where 
legal documentation, environmental and labour safety aspects are 
checked. 

Achieving improvements in labour safety

The project demonstrates important results in labour safety 
thanks to the adoption of new logging technology, training, and 
safety equipment. A major occupational safety programme at Stora 
Enso's newly acquired subsidiaries in Russia works to bring the 
number of all work-related accidents to a target level of zero.

Accomplishing sustainable forestry

Victor Pladov, Chairman of the Board of Shuyales states. "We 
started the work in Shuyales by organising a workshop for our 
employees, contractors and the local forest management 
authority. We discussed labour safety, business practices and 
sustainable forestry, and agreed upon a roadmap for enhancing 
sustainable forestry."

"A major achievement was that Russkiy Les and four other Stora 
Enso’s Russian subsidiaries prepared more than 400,000 hectares 
of forest lease areas for FSC forest management and chain-of-
custody certification. The auditing process was started in March 
2006," said Kauko Parviainen, Senior Vice President, Stora Enso 
Wood Supply Russia. 

Project benchmarks

Over the course of the project, the partners have been actively 
engaged in various sustainability initiatives. 

’The main contribution of The Random House Group UK was 
achieving FSC chain-of-custody certification, the first consumer 
book publisher worldwide to do so. We therefore particularly 
welcome Stora Enso’s FSC forest management certification process 
of its forest lease areas in Russia,’ said Katherine Hockley, 
Production Manager of Random House. 

Florian Nehm, Sustainability Officer at Axel Springer AG, said: 
"For us, sustainability is a matter of credibility.  Development 
of transparent sustainability reporting was one goal of the 
collaboration. The Axel Springer Sustainability Report 2005 is 
the first benchmark of verified social reporting in the 
publishing sector, and in compliance with the GRI (Global 
Reporting Initiative) indicators."

David Refkin, Director of Sustainable Development at Time Inc., 
added: "We joined the project for many reasons. One key result 
was Stora Enso’s implementation of FSC group forest 
certification in Russia, which helps us reach our certified 
sustainable forestry targets for our paper suppliers." 

"We want consumers to feel that the packaging that protects 
their drinks also protects their environment. This project 
demonstrates industry leadership in improving every aspect of 
sustainability. And, to prove that through forest certification 
and full traceability of the origin of wood," said Mario Abreu, 
Forestry Director of Tetra Pak.

Dissemination of results continues

The focus now is on sharing the project results and best 
practices with other wood suppliers in Russia. This will be 
implemented through Stora Enso's supplier audits and trainings. 
In June 2006, the seven project partners and the two critical 
reviewers jointly launched this process at Stora Enso's supplier 
seminar in the Russian Karelia. The results of the Tikhvin-
Chalna Project are also shared through a project report, a 
newsletter and a website www.tikhvinproject.ru. The website 
includes a film from a workshop in Russian Karelia in summer 
2006. 

The project partners will continue to, individually, support 
Stora Enso in this work when appropriate.


For further information please contact:

Kauko Parviainen, Senior Vice President, Stora Enso Wood Supply 
Russia, 
tel. +358 400 891 460
Victor Pladov, Chairman of the Board, Shuyales, tel. +7 81 456 
45368
David Refkin, Director of Sustainable Development, Time Inc., 
tel. +1 212 522 3356 
Katherine Hockley, Production Manager, the Random House Group 
UK, 
tel. +44 207 840 8746
Florian Nehm, Corporate Sustainability Officer, Axel Springer, 
tel. +49 302 591 793 70
Mario Abreu, Director, Forestry and Recycling, Tetra Pak, tel. 
+46 46364545
Kenneth Rosenbaum, Expert Advisor, Forest Integrity Network of 
Transparency International, tel. +1 703 333 5315
Galina Kozyreva, Senior Researcher, Karelian Research Center, 
tel. +7 906 209 7910

Central press contact:
Johanna Grönroos, Stora Enso 
tel. +358 400 938 421 or +44 787 639 0808, e-mail 
johanna.gronroos@storaenso.com 


For more information, and to download a copy of the project 
report, visit: www.tikhvinproject.ru 

Photos available at:
http://bmt.storaenso.com/storaensolink2006.jsp?imageid=061214
Please, copy the link onto your web browser.


STORA ENSO OYJ


p.p.	Anu Vesmanen		Jukka Marttila

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