Thursday, 15 August 2002
Certification Awareness Teams Form in Tennessee
The Pinchot Institute for Conservation, in partnership with the Tennessee Conservation League (TCL) have just announced the creation of the nation’s first statewide forest certification vendors team.
TFCAT — short for the Tennessee Forest Certification Awareness Team — is a selected group of vendors with production facilities across the state who seek out and give purchase preference to certified wood for product manufacturing. The forest certification awareness team concept was initiated by the Pinchot Institute and the TCL in direct response to the state of Tennessee recently being recommended for FSC certification through the SmartWood program on all state-managed forests (160,000 acres). Tennessee’s decision to participate in the certification assessment project was in part driven by the state’s desire to serve as a model to Tennessee non-industrial private landowners. The mission of the vendors team is to assist the Pinchot Institute and TCL efforts in bringing 40% of the state’s private forest lands under certification status by the end of 2004. Five workshops will be conducted in the state in mid-to-late August.