Monday, 01 December 2003
Domtar–WWF Announce Partnership
Agreement Could Mean More than 20 Million Additional FSC-Certified Acres and Product Influx into U.S. Market
On November 14th, Domtar Inc., the third largest producer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America, and WWF-Canada announced a milestone agreement on forest stewardship that commits both organizations to work together to ensure the long-term conservation of forests in North America. Domtar hopes to be the first major manufacturer to provide FSC-certified paper originating from their certified forests all the way through the chain-of-custody to product distribution.
Domtar has agreed to certify all of its forests and mills to FSC standards, subject to the successful completion of two pilot projects. Domtar manages a total of 22 million acres of forestland in the U.S. and Canada, and currently almost 200,000 acres of that is FSC-certified with 2 certificates in Southern Ontario, and one in upper New York State.
The remaining lands are boreal forest located in Ontario and Quebec with jack pine, spruce, poplar, aspen and white birch being the primary species. The two pilot projects will begin in January 2004, testing the ability of Domtar to apply the FSC boreal forest standard to their lands. The projects are expected to be complete by the end of 2004, at which time, if the pilots are deemed successful, Domtar will seek certification for their remaining lands.
The harvested softwood will almost entirely go to Domtar’s own mills, and the softwood chips will then go to Domtar’s pulp mills. The harvested hardwoods will primarily go into the OSB and veneer products industry, creating significant supply opportunities for manufacturers in producing FSC-certified products of this variety. Domtar already has three chain-of-custody certificates for its paper mills in Canada, as well as the recently completed certification contract of the Woodland pulp mill in Baileyville, Maine. SmartWood, an FSC-accredited certifier and a program of the Rainforest Alliance, granted all certifications.
Brian Nicks, RPF, director of environment, sustainable forest management and certification for Domtar, said that due to high standards mandated by the government already in place in Ontario and Quebec, seeking FSC certification “is a logical next step and should be fairly easy for us to achieve." He also noted that Domtar is “trying to capture enough land base to meet the minimum requirement for FSC percentage based claims policy for sawmills. We should easily be able to do this if we get all this land certified."
William George, vice president of communications and government relations for Domtar, said they hope this commitment “sends a signal to all of our customers to request FSC-certified products, as well as get our suppliers, in those areas where we don’t supply our mills with timber from our own lands, to get on board and certify their practices as well." George also noted that there is major potential in the North American market for FSC-certified business papers (such as copy paper), and for papers in the publishing industry. Domtar is excited to potentially be able to create products to serve these markets, as well as offer a wider variety of FSC-certified papers to all its customers.
Domtar’s distributors, Ris Paper in the U.S. and Buntin-Reid in Canada, are both FSC chain-of-custody certificate holders, granted by SmartWood. Both are currently distributing two FSC-certified papers, and will be ready to add more to their product offerings when these new certifications come on board.
Domtar is also involved in many Sustainable Forest Licenses in Canada, in addition to the public lands they have been directly licensed to manage. Domtar is supporting efforts in seeking FSC certification for many of these lands as well.