Forest Owned by Oji Paper Receives Forest Stewardship Accreditation

Oji Paper Co. announced that it's 210 hectare forest in Shizuoka Prefecture has received forest stewardship accreditation granted by Japan's Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council (SGEC), on December 25, 2003.

The SGEC was established in June 2003 to operate a forest stewardship accreditation system based on Japanese standards, in response to the recent growing demand for sustainable forest products in the domestic market. The Chairman of Oji Paper, Masahiko Ohkuni, who is also chairman of the Japan Paper Association, is one of the founders of the SGEC, and has supported the organization as its executive director. The forest owned by Oji Paper was the first to achieve SGEC accreditation, together with a forest owned by Nippon Paper Industries Co.

Oji Paper decided to actively pursue accreditation for the following reasons:
1. Forest stewardship accreditation is expected to become increasingly important worldwide.
2. The company owns the largest area of private forest land in the country, totaling 700 forest areas amounting to 190,000 hectares, equal in area to Osaka Prefecture. Thus it is important for the company to carry out its responsibility for forest management and actively engage in the Japanese forest stewardship accreditation system.
3. The forest stewardship accreditation system is expected to play a more important role in assessing privately-owned forests, not only in terms of timber use, but also in terms of carbon sinks that mitigate global warming.

Oji Paper plans to make continuous efforts to achieve FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) accreditation for its plantations overseas, and SGEC accreditation for its forests in Japan.





Posted: 2004/02/26 09:22:04 AM
Japanese version