What is sustainable forest management and how does it contribute to certifications?

Learn about the advantages that this practice offers to the environment and society

With forests covering about 30% of the world and the intention of the UN Strategic Plan for forests to increase this amount by 3% by 2030, sustainable forest management can be a great ally in achieving this goal. [1,2]

Moreover, adopting adequate forest management practices contributes to receiving certifications such as the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) certification. [3]

Continue reading to learn more about sustainable forest management, its advantages, and how it contributes to achieving forestry certifications. 

What is sustainable forest management?

Sustainable forest management can be defined as forest management with a focus on benefits for society, the economy, and especially the environment. To achieve these advantages for everyone, it is necessary to adopt actions that contribute to the sustainability of the planet, and so, sustainable forest management emerges.

Why is sustainable forest management important?

Sustainable forest management is a way of managing forests in a manner that does not negatively affect the local ecosystem and biodiversity. Its main objective is to reduce the impacts generated by the improper exploitation of forests.

In this way, sustainable forest management ensures the sustainability not only of the environment in which it is being applied, but also of production. And, for this, there needs to be harvest planning and the monitoring of the advancement of this forest, in addition to the monitoring of the other stages of operation.

Thus, forest management shows itself as a viable solution to enhance the use of forests through sustainable management, which monitors all the production to be harvested in the planted areas.

What are the advantages of sustainable forest management?

With sustainable forest management, the intention is that the forest stays alive for many years. For the management of this land to be the least invasive possible, environmentally appropriate actions must be taken such as:

• Biodiversity conservation
• Abundance in quantity of essential societal resources
• Fighting against climate change
• Soil formation
• Profitability
• Forest conservation

How does sustainable forest management contribute to attaining certifications?

Forest management is an activity required by legislation, so that all the operational stages occur in an adequate manner and with respect to the environment. However, sustainable forest management contributes to forest conservation by applying actions that seek to maintain and improve the sustainability of the tree plantations.

As a necessary and responsible activity, sustainable forest management can contribute to companies’ ability to achieve forest certifications such as the FSC and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). [3,4]

What are forest certifications and why are they important?

Forest certifications are granted to companies that responsibly and safely comply with the requirements for sustainable actions such as sustainable forest management.

This means that certifications are essential for a responsible activity, which promotes the improvement of forest quality and of its operations in search of the reduction of negative impacts and the potential advantages of this practice for society and the environment.

How to leverage sustainable forest management in your company

With the support of technology, managing forests becomes a simpler, more assertive, and effective activity to perform. For this, you need to count on the support of forest management software such as INFLOR Forest, which enables the simulation of scenarios, goal setting, cost calculation, income calculation, and also generates personalized performance indicators.

How we can help

With the INFLOR Quality Module, you can promote the automation and integration of data from forest operations in your company. Aligned to the forest management processes and equipped with mobile capabilities, our Quality Module allows the registration and updating of all forest data in real time and notifies the irregularity of plots when there is no conformity in the field.

It allows your company to enable the integration of the solution with the forest management system and helps your management to be adequate to the quality standards and certifications—such as FSC and ISO.

With these capabilities, your forestry operation ensures:

• Better decision making
• Greater control over forest operations
• Strong integration
• Flexibility in data collection and processing

The INFLOR Quality Module is the solution that ensures the enhancement of the health of your forest. 

Ready to find out how we can help you achieve high-performing results?
Get in touch with our team today to talk to a specialist.

Sources:

1: NASA Earth Observatory | Seeing Forests for the Trees and the Carbon: Mapping the World’s Forests in Three Dimensions

2: United Nations | United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030

3: U.S. Forest Stewardship Council | Certification 

4: Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)