FSC certificate for Metsä Group's forests

Metsä Group Press Release, 11 September 2012


Metsä Group has been awarded an FSC group certificate that covers the forests in Finland owned by the Group companies. At present, the FSC group certificate granted to Metsä Group covers around 35,000 hectares. The forests have already been certified according to PEFC.

“The FSC standard is well applicable to Finnish commercial forests, and we did not find any major differences between the FSC and the PEFC certification requirements,” says Jussi Ripatti, Environmental Manager of Metsä Group.

Contractual customers of Metsä Group’s parent company Metsäliitto Cooperative have the possibility to join the FSC group certificate. Customers who have signed a forest management agreement have already previously been able to join Metsäliitto Cooperative's PEFC group certificate.

“We want to offer our owner-members comprehensive forestry and environmental management services, including forest certification,” says Juha Mäntylä, Executive Vice President, Metsä Forest.

Participation in the forest certification scheme is voluntary for forest owners. PEFC and FSC are the world’s best known forest certification schemes. Metsä Group considers the schemes to be equally sound as a guarantee of the sustainable origin of wood. Less than 10 per cent of all the forests in the world have been certified, while 80 per cent of the wood Metsä Group uses is certified.

“It is important for our customers that the wood they use comes from a sustainably managed forest. We want to be involved in the development of sustainable forestry standards and offer our customers as wide a selection of certified products as possible,” says Riikka Joukio, Metsä Group’s Senior Vice President, Sustainability and Corporate Affairs.


METSÄ GROUP
Group Communications

For further information, please contact:
Juha Mäntylä, Executive Vice President, Metsä Forest, tel. +358 10 465 4244
Jussi Ripatti, Environmental Manager, Metsä Group, tel. +358 500 180 552


www.metsagroup.com

Metsä Group is a responsible forest industry group whose products are part of people’s everyday life and promote sustainable well-being. Metsä Group produces high-quality products mainly from renewable Nordic wood and wood fibre. The Group’s business areas are tissue and cooking papers, board and paper, pulp, wood products as well as wood supply. Metsä Group’s sales totalled EUR 5.3 billion in 2011, and it employs approximately 12,500 people. The Group is present in some 30 countries.