Exclusion of Explosive-Contaminated Forests from FSC Certification in Ukraine

Since the beginning of the military aggression against Ukraine, russian invaders have made forestry activities impossible on approximately one-third of the forests due to occupation, destruction, and contamination with explosive objects. In connection with this, ForestCom's experts conducted a monitoring study on such territories (see publication). 

The war has also affected internationally certified forests, including those in the northern and northeastern regions of Ukraine, which were liberated from occupation in 2022. Part of these forests suffered from military actions, but a larger portion remained mined or contaminated with explosive objects. As a result, forest users cannot conduct forestry activities in these areas. However, they can and should work in uncontaminated territories. Many management units have both types of forests.

Today, such management units are deprived of the opportunity to obtain FSC certification, even if they comply with this certification's requirements on uncontaminated land. With the consolidation of forest enterprises, this problem becomes even more acute. Therefore, it is important to create conditions for excluding contaminated territories from the scope of the certificate for such enterprises. We believe this will allow to improve forest management and ensure compliance with internationally recognized criteria.

ForestCom, together with colleagues from FSC, has been working on the development of a project of the corresponding document "FSC criteria, indicators and verifiers for excision of CEO areas from the scope of certification in accordance with FSC-POL-20-003 V 1-0 for Ukraine" throughout the past and present years, which has recently been submitted for approval at the international level. Notably, the developed mechanism for excluding territories contaminated with explosive objects from the scope of FSC certification is innovative in the international practice of FSC certification. Link to the news on the FSC website.

ForestCom is also working on developing a step-by-step action algorithm for forest users in case of detection of contamination with explosive objects on their territory, which will be published later.