The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) welcomes the withdrawal of the suspension of Swedwood Karelia’s FSC certificate by its certification body, the Rainforest Alliance.
The suspension was lifted due to a revised decision on several previously identified non-conformities, following a successful appeal by Swedwood and IKEA.
Forest Stewardship Council has made a statement on the lifting of suspension. It says: FSC’s certification system is a robust one, designed to ensure that once certification is granted, all the criteria that allowed it to be certified in the first place, are upheld. Where audits detect these are not sufficiently upheld, the certificate is suspended to protect the rest of the system. The FSC system also allows for appeals to be made against certification decisions, as has happened successfully in this case.
“We urge Swedwood to continue its pressing work to address the remaining corrective action requests. This will further demonstrate its continued commitment to responsible forest management and to the principles of the FSC,” said FSC Managing Director, Kim Carstensen.
Swedwood Karelia LLC is a forestry subsidiary of Swedish home furnishing company IKEA.
