The results show that the proportion of FSC-certified timber has doubled between 2012 and 2016.
Roughly half of the certified timber in Belgium carries the FSC label, which therefore accounts for approximately one third of the total volume of primary timber products on the national market.
Compared with the results from 2012 (15%), this means that the market share of FSC-certified timber has doubled!
In 2016, 60% of primary timber products came from certified origin. In 2012, when the previous market survey was organized by the Federal Environment Service, the share of certified timber products was around 40%.
This increase is due mainly to strong growth in the supply of softwood timber and wooden panels, as more than half of these timbers are certified.
In parallel, the availability of FSC-certified softwood timber and wooden panels, as well as the proportion of FSC-certified tropical hardwoods, has increased considerably. The supply of temperate hardwoods bearing the FSC label remains more limited, though increasing demand on the part of the processing industry may in time also lead to an increase in this sector too.
78.9% of the total volume of paper and cardboard on the Belgian market is certified, and two-thirds of these materials are FSC certified.
“We hope that the general availability of FSC-certified paper and cardboard will inspire printers, packaging firms and other processing industries to get more actively involved in this field”, explains Bart Holvoet, FSC Belgium Director. “After all, demonstrating a responsible sourcing of the raw materials is more and more a selling point to which customers are not indifferent”.
“We are of course pleased, but a great deal still remains to be done. It is therefore important to increasingly choose certified forest products, so as to encourage more forest managers to engage in sustainable forest management and improve their practices and products”, adds Bart Holvoet.