FSC certificate suspended for IKEA's subsidiary, Swedwood Karelia

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WhatWood.ru today reported that following an investigation by the NEPcon audit company, the FSC forest management certification issued to Swedwood Karelia was suspended. The NEPcon FSC audit started in October 2013 and it was aimed to screen the forest management, the Chain of Custody and how the company follows standards of FSC certification in the forests of Kalevala and Kostomucksha in Karelia.

Following the announced suspension, the head of inter-regional public environmental organization SPOK Alexander Markov said to the Forest portal of Karelia: ''This is the confirmation of the claims of Russian and Swedish environmental organizations expressed in December 2012 at the meeting with the managers of IKEA Group which owns Swedwood company. The most acute problems of IKEA are the lack of interaction with stakeholders and the unsolved matter of conservation in the valuable forests. This practice should be changed,'' he added.

Back in 2012, Swedish environmental organizations strongly criticized IKEA for allowing its subsidiary Swedwood, to practice questionable forestry management in Karelia. More specific, Swedwood was accused of ''felling the last untouched taiga sites'' in Northern Karelia and also that it had clear-cut areas of old-growth forest containing 200-600 year-old trees.

The WhatWood report reminds that during a meeting in Stockholm, the environmentalists demanded from IKEA ''to provide detailed maps of high conservation value forests leased by Swedwood Karelia, as well as to start negotiations for the conservation of these forests with stakeholders, including the regional government.''

Moreover, the ecologists ''demanded from IKEA and Swedwood to make a public statement of support for the planned system of specially protected natural areas in Karelia and to take effective plan for the relocation of logging activities from old-growth forests and areas of high conservation value to secondary forests''.

Reactions to the FSC certificate suspension decision came immediately: “We have won! FSC has decided to withdraw its certificate for IKEA’s unscrupulous logging of the Russian virgin wood”, Sara Vikstrøm Olsson from the Field Biologists stated in a press release. The environmental groups Save the Forest Sweden and Field Biologists (Nature and Youth Sweden) are the two main NGO's who oppossed IKEA's practices in Karelia.

Until now, IKEA hasn't issued any statement regarding the NEPcon decision.

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