Let us support forest certification in Uganda

By Amumpiire Anna

Forest certification is a relatively new concept especially within East African countries. Forest certification is simply a tool for identifying responsibly managed forests worldwide following a set of principles and criteria.

A certificate of international repute is given to confirm that the forest unit is managed in accordance with the principles and criteria while every product from such a forest bears a logo of the certification scheme.

Forest certification provides avenues for inspection and tracking of forest products, besides it also links responsible production with responsible consumption of forest products where by a consumer of the forest product contributes to the sustainability of the forest estate.

For that matter, certified forest products often bear a logo, for example a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Trademark logo.

Forest certification begins with the forest and continues along the value chain.  It is a market based tool aimed at rewarding forest management through the provision of market incentives to timber dealers (and any other dealers of the forest products) who produce timber from certified forests.

Through forest certification, responsible forestry practices will be promoted in Uganda to address the current high rates of deforestation and forest degradation. This tool recognises environmental, economic and social requirements necessary for the sustainable management of the forestry sector and will be relevant for both timber products and non-timber products.

The main aims of certification include; responsible and sustainable harvesting of timber and non-timber forest products, promoting use of forest products in an environmentally responsible, socially acceptable and economic way, including global market competitiveness and compliance.

Uganda is in the process of domesticating and popularising the FSC certification scheme to its own National Standard. The Forest Stewardship Council is an independent, non-government certification authority which awards certification for sustainably managed forests using credible certification bodies that undertake audits. 

The National Standard shall be a measure/yardstick and an advocate for good forestry management practices. This process is on-going and being undertaken by the Standards Development Group for Uganda with the support of the FSC National focal point in Uganda, WWF and FSC International. 

Certification will ensure that the developed standards are adhered to in the forestry sector; better working conditions for workers in the forestry sector, recognition of rights of communities adjacent to forests, compliance with existing laws and FSC principles which will ensure that timber dealers are legally registered and the relevant agencies comply with the laws and policies.

Most importantly, measures for combating illegal activities in the sector will be established such as legal issue of licenses.

The most important step in the development of Uganda’s forest certification mechanism should, therefore, be sensitisation of the forestry stakeholders; this should entail its relevance and benefits in order to secure commitment and ownership of the certification process and established standards. The expected roles to be by played by the different stakeholders should also be depicted.

These standards can be used by timber companies, NGOs, communities, the Government, private timber companies, timber dealers and other forestry stakeholders.

With these standards in place, forestry agencies can be assessed or even audited based on their respective mandates in the forestry sector in Uganda. This will thereby promote improvements in the sector through identification of specific areas for enhancement. Besides, it can further open up funding opportunities for Uganda’s forestry sector, which is already unfortunately underfunded.

With the increasing pressure on the forestry resources, protecting the remaining forests should be Uganda’s priority. Uganda National Forest Plan 2011/12 – 2021/22 proposes adoption of forest certification across all forest categories and ownership regimes.

So far Uganda has four FSC certificates covering 106,954 Ha of forests that are still growing and approaching maturity. We can then call upon procurement entities to embrace procurements of legal and or certified forest products for all their procurements from office stationery to furniture and construction timber.

This will ensure that all timber products used in all public/government institutions are from certified legal sources.

The writer works with Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment