CHENNAI: Indian forests are now open to ‘certification’. The Global Forest and Trade Network- India (GFTN-India), launched on Wednesday, will “facilitate” the certification of Indian forests to achieve responsible forestry and to allow the country to do legal trading of wood in key world markets.
It will aim at creating market conditions that support forest conservation while providing economic and social benefits for businesses and people that depended on them, said T R Manoharan of GFTN-India, while explaining the aims and objects of the Indian arm of the Global Forest and Trade Network.
He said the country had no credibly certified forests, which was a serious limitation on the Indian timber industry that uses wood and fibre from it. “The Chain of Custody (CoC) certification is needed to allow India to continue trading in key world markets,” informed Manoharan, who addressed reporters along with Richard McLellan, head of GFTN, WWF International.
Manoharan said India’s ability to export its manufactured wood products to Europe and the US might be affected by amended legislation, the Lacey Act and the FLEGT process in Europe respectively.
Both the legislations aimed at stopping trade in illegal wood and wood products from entering key markets.
“GFTN-India can help forest owners, including the Indian government, which own 90 per cent of the country’s forests, to move towards forest certification and to match buyers and suppliers nationally and globally,’’ he said.
Manoharan, however, failed to come out with a concrete answer, when asked whether the setting up of GFTN-India will amount to neo-colonial tendencies.
The top officials, however, are aware of “the conflicts in land use and livelihood issues as about 350 million people inhabited in and around forests are directly dependent on it. Forestry is the biggest land-use in the country after agriculture.
Source : Expressbuzz