CROATIAN FORESTS WIN INTERNATIONAL FOREST MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATE

ZAGREB, Nov 7 (Hina) - The Croatian Forests have been awarded the prestigious Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest management certificate, which confirms that all two million hectares of state forests in Croatia are managed in line with strict environmental, social and economic criteria. #L# So far, FSC certificates have been awarded for some 30 million hectares of forest, which bears witness to the importance of the certificate, which the Croatian Forests were awarded on October 17, after a two-year process of adjustment to the FSC criteria, Croatian Forests director Zeljko Ledinski said at a press conference on Thursday. Considering the size of the country, this is Croatia's most important international certificate. Croatia is the only country that has been awarded the certificate for all state forests, the FSC coordinator with the Croatian Forests, Ratko Matosevic, said. Matosevic said that the company had to meet three groups of criteria to win the certificate. The first group refers to environmental criteria, including regulations on the protection and preservation of biological diversity, protection of the nature, careful use of pesticides; the second group refers to social criteria, which bind to respect for the interest of local communities, protection of workers' rights and occupational safety; and the third group refers to economic criteria, which include planning, acceptable forest management methods and the stimulation of local businesses. The certificate has been awarded for a period of five years, it is subject to three-year monitoring and has been awarded by Great Britain's Soil Association Woodmark. The FSC was established in 1993 with the support of leading international associations for environmental protection (such as WWF, Greenpeace etc.). It approves the issuing of certificates and guarantees their authenticity. So far, some 450 certificates have been awarded in 56 countries. (hina) rml