Forest Certification

Benefits of Forest Certification

Forest Certification of 4.9 million acres of state-administered forestlands independently recognizes the State of Minnesota's progress towards sustainability; continuously improved forest management practices, interdisciplinary coordination and communication; and acknowledges the State of Minnesota's efforts to maintain a sustainable supply of forest products and services from healthy, diverse and productive ecosystems. Maintaining Forest Certification demonstrates and re-affirms DNR's dedication to sustainable and responsible forest management.

In the current tough economic times, certification has helped improve the global market competitiveness of Minnesota's certified forest products. Forest Certification has helped ensure strong markets for state-owned timber, thereby maintaining our ability to effectively manage our forests while also maintaining the economic vitality of many of Minnesota's forest dependent rural communities. Minnesota has experienced fewer mill closures and stronger forest product markets, compared to other regions in the country where certified forests and products are not available. Although data indicates that consumers are not willing to pay more for certified products (i.e., certificate holders are not receiving price premiums), most agree that Forest Certification has played a huge role in securing and ensuring market access. As explained earlier, many in the global forest products industry view Forest Certification as a requirement to doing business and a necessity in order to compete with cheaper, foreign fiber sources or forest products. Forest Certification is expected to be increasingly important in the future in order to compete in the global marketplace, especially as large acreages become certified.

There are numerous other qualitative and indirect benefits associated with Forest Certification, including:

• Greater stakeholder recognition and support for forest management policies and operations;
• Added focus of managing on a landscape scale;
• Taxes and jobs provided at the local level from maintaining a thriving forest products industry, which is aided by forest certification.