The Rainforest Alliance has awarded SmartLogging certification to the Louisiana Forestry Association, a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, La., that promotes sustainable forestry. The certification initially applies to a group of 10 independent logging contractors in Louisiana and Mississippi that are part of a professional group within the association called the Louisiana Logging Council. This is the second SmartLogging certification awarded by the Rainforest Alliance, an international nonprofit conservation organization.
"The Rainforest Alliance created SmartLogging to recognize responsible timber harvesting practices used by independent loggers and fill a gap in certification services," said Richard Donovan, chief of forestry at the Rainforest Alliance. "Loggers are an important link in the wood products supply chain, and this certification gives them a way to become active participants in improving the environmental and social impacts of harvesting practices."
SmartLogging certification requires loggers to have a harvest plan that includes wildlife habitat protection, occupational health and safety, and water and soil conservation, among other things. The standards were developed with input from loggers, environmental groups, the government and other stakeholders in the forest industry.
"Our loggers have a serious commitment to sustainable forestry," said Buck Vandersteen, executive director of the Louisiana Forestry Association, which is made up of more than 3,500 members including foresters, landowners, land managers and loggers. "Now we have third-party validation that our best practices comply with even the toughest international standards."
Forestry is the largest agricultural enterprise in Louisiana, where it contributed nearly $4.9 billion to the state’s economy in 2006, according to the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. And in Mississippi, where $1.2 billion in forest products were harvested in 2006, timber is the second most valuable agricultural commodity after poultry and eggs, according to the Mississippi State University Department of Forestry.
Mississippi and Louisiana were also among the top 10 states in the US in acres of privately owned timberland and were third and fourth (behind Georgia and Alabama) in volumes of timber harvested in 2002, according to a study by the USDA Forest Service.
Independent loggers, who supply raw material for wood products industries, have a great impact on the health of the forest ecosystem. They also operate on non-industrial, privately owned forestlands, of which less than five percent nationwide have any management planning. Responsible logging is therefore critical to meeting landowner goals; maintaining forest health, local aesthetics, water quality and wildlife protection; and supplying mills with needed raw materials.
A third-party certification program like SmartLogging recognizes the professionalism of responsible independent loggers and provides an incentive for them to minimize harmful environmental and social impacts that can potentially result from harvesting practices. Paper manufacturers had expressed interest in the creation of such a program as a way to purchase third-party certified wood from non-industrial forestlands that are not eligible for or cannot get access to forest management certification because of the lack of management plans and professional forestry services or certification costs. Indeed, the Louisiana Forestry Association learned about SmartLogging from executives at a paper mill who encouraged them to seek certification.
The seven main components of the SmartLogging performance evaluation encompass legal requirements, harvest planning and monitoring, harvesting practices, community values, occupational health and safety, business viability, and continuous improvement and innovation. To maintain certification, the group must continue to comply with the standards and pass annual audits. The end goal is to ensure a more sustainable supply of responsibly harvested wood products from working forests.The Rainforest Alliance via Environmental News Network
