Photo: news.go.vn

PANO - The Dak To Planco enterprise, an affiliated company of the Dak To Forest State-owned Company in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum, has received the first Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) controlled wood certificate for natural forest management in Vietnam.

Dak To Planco enterprise is one of five pilot companies assisted by the Vietnamese-German forestry program, implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), to achieve sustainable forest management.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, an international standard for sustainable forest management is a marketing tool for Vietnam’s timber products to enter international markets with best prices. The implementation of the FSC standards contributes to the economic viability of sustainable forest management apart from social and environmental requirements.

The FSC Controlled Wood Certification is regarded as a first step towards reaching a full FSC Forest Management certification. The Dak To Planco Enterprise took a number of actions during the run-up to the FSC audit, to obtain the certification. These actions included a forestry inventory and zoning as the basis for the development of the forestry management plan, a 40 ha trial harvesting, the design of a comprehensive harvesting plan and the application of reduced impact logging (RIL). A successful auction of the logs was conducted with the aim of achieving transparency and higher valuation on the timber market. The controlled wood audit was conducted by the GFA Certification (one of the bodies accredited by FSC A.C for worldwide FSC certification services) during October 2011.

In Viet Nam, forestry not only produces commodities for the national economy, but also plays an important role for employment, the livelihoods of the rural population and environmental protection. Therefore, the BMZ supports a comprehensive, integrated approach to the Vietnamese-German Forestry Program.

This program provides technical and policy advices to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and other partners at both national and local levels. Besides its impacts on forestry, policy-makers, forest practitioners, timber associations and traders, the program aims to improve conventional forest management practices, traditional business behaviour and culture, as well as desk-based policy formulation. It links forest production with value chains in processing and trade, while improving the legal framework and policy mechanisms.

Translated by Nguyen Thao