Celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav IWST (Institute of Wood Science & Technology) organised an online webinar on “Sustainability, Certification and Legality in Wood Products” on January 21, 2022 in which the industry leaders as well as Institutes and government representatives presented their views and talked about the development and possible changes that could be adopted to accelerate the growth of wood based industries and its sustainability prospects. The eminent people for the discussion were included Mr Sajjan Bhajanka, President, FIPPI; Dr M P Singh, IFS Director, IWST, Bangalore; Dr Suneesh Buxy, IFS, Inspector General, MoEF & CC, govt of India; Dr Manmohan Yadav, Professor & Dean, IIFM, Bhopal; Mr Jikesh Thakkar, Executive Director, AIPM (Association Of Indian Panel board Manufacturers).
Besides, many eminent people gave presentations that included: Dr HR Prabuddham IFS, IWST, Bangalore – Sustainability, Certification and Legality in Wood Product: Wood and Indian Scenario. Dr HD Kulkarni, Vice President Plantation (Retd.) ITC Ltd - Relevance of sustainability certification for agri-wood in India. Ms Shilpa Naryal, Head Sustainability – South East Asia, Intertek – Sustainable development of a greener supply chain in the Global Value Chains. And Dr Shiv S Panse, Forest Governance Expert & Technical Advisor Sustainable Forest and Natural Resource Management - Sustainability, Certification and Legality in Wood Product in India. Here is a brief on the discussion.
Dr HR Prabudham IFS, IWST, Bangalore: SFM (sustainable forest management) India scenario indicates that from the required wood less than 2.7mn cbm is coming from forest and majority of them 90% is coming from TOF (Tree out of forest) and 6 mn cbm is coming from Imports. The certified wood may not be very persuasive in the domestic market however the enhancement in the availability of certified wood in India would boost its export of wood products. India has two alternatives one is to set up a government led national body to set the standard and administer the certification & labelling process in toto. Secondly, be dependent on international standard setting & accreditation organisations.
Mr Sajjan Bhajanka, President, FIPPI: Certain things are in the final stage and we are going to modify it. That may be a new Act or new direction which could be a game changer in TOF and wood based industry. Being one of the largest plywood manufacturers in the country, we don’t feel any difficulty due to non availability of the certificate, because our domestic market is strong. It is more narrating to us rather than exports, so we are very happy in the domestic market producing and selling in this market. As an industry there is no pressure or anything on us. But, recently we are getting enquiry (more particularly it is a bargaining point) from the furniture manufacturers that the government doesn’t impose any import duty (ADD) on furniture.
They have raised this point very strongly. It may be true also, because 50% of their produce is being exported, I am not sure because I am not in that segment. But, yes there would be a requirement for certified wood for the EU market. It is also required for us because India is also going for platinum certified or green certified building construction in the coming future and for that all the ingredients should be certified. Let us prepare and promote certification that should be simple and our own.
I foresee 10 years from now most of the furniture would be panel manufactured in India and most would be consumed in India only. So, for the foreign certification, our certification is not very relevant. So, we should encourage farmers to get certified as per Indian certification and for that we should incentivise the farmers. We are giving 5% extra to the eucalyptus farmer if it is certified. This could be a good beginning.
Belling the cat by industry appears little diffcult as leading players like Century and Green will choose internationally accepted rules for certiffcation like FSC, PFC etc because it is easy for them. If the grouping of farmers is happening in the Ag sector then why not in Agroforestry?
Dr M P Singh, IFS Director, IWST, Bangalore: When we are free from felling and transit regulation the traceability is more important so that wood can be identified easily that it is coming from legal resources. We must be clear that we have to be in a different mode as the other country has converted their forest in plantation then they are talking about the certification. In our condition we are getting most of the supply from agroforestry, so the system should be different. We should look for a digital solution that would be very easy and cost effective also.
Dr. C. N. Pandey, Technical Advisor, Federation of Indian Plywood And Panel Industry (FIPPI): For certification there are some criteria and indications for the requirement of the international market. So, it can be developed by institutes like IWST. In this regard now BIS has taken responsibility in terms of development of standard in the convenorship of DG Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE). Selling our product in the international market is not cost competitive actually from products like China, Vietnam, etc. So, I am really doubtful whether any certification is able to grow the business in the international market.
Dr Manmohan Yadav, Professor/ Dean, IIFM, Bhopal: Business organisation should take responsibility under CSR. Generally certification is done by a third party but before going for that primarily there should be self certification and attestation, acceptance of us. ITC is the best example for making wood for everybody by helping farmers is to reduce their risk. They all have link certification to the market and no certified wood comes from illegal markets. In terms of legality certification the industry doesn't have any approach as domestically it is not much required. But for exports it comes into picture necessarily. So, what to do – make a simple policy, remove all restrictions of harvesting, processing and marketing of any wood that is grown on farm land.
Dr Suneesh Buxy, IFS, Inspector General, MoEF &CC, govt of India: We are coming up with a lot of new Ideas and changing the guidelines also. Due to SC intervention and stumbling block that we are facing otherwise we are ready with new guidelines and also with some Acts which was proposed by IWST, PIPIRTI and many other specialists from IIFM and consultation are on.
Forests certification is also the need of the hour. So, there should be a kind of certification, one for farmers/agroforestry. Secondly, the working guidelines which are our management for 10 years with the government forest system, so that also need to be seen. For example, for the domestic market if they want Teak from Baitul of MP, CPT. It is certified by the government and the customers will definitely take that. Now the facility is not available in the growing economy, so I request that it should be planned in both the manner taking the government forest also in consideration as well as TOF.
HD Kulkarni, Vice President Plantation (Retd.) ITC Ltd: The reason for seeking separate certification for agro-wood and woe agro-forestry wood is derived from short medium rotation trees grown on farm land for meeting the raw material demand of the industry. There is no concept of turning agro forestry plantations into natural forest and that the FSC, PEFC and other certifications schemes insist on through P&C such as HCVF etc. Organized large scale industries can get FSC certification by grouping farmers but it is difficult for SMEs such as handicrafts and similar industries. The Way forward is that India should have a simple certification mechanism which helps farmers as other International recognition for the certification scheme. Plywood industry does not promote plantation to this extent, except for a few players, that too their plantations do not exceed more than 25,000 ha. And for that obviously industry has to incur this expenditure that would be around 10 lakh every year.
Belling the cat by industry appears little difficult as leading players like Century and Green will choose internationally accepted rules for certification like FSC, PFC etc because it is easy for them. My experience is that if the grouping of farmers is happening in the Ag sector then why not in Agroforestry? Government collects data of trees that are happening in Karnataka. So, I think grouping these farmers in district or subdivision level and making a larger area certified under an agency which is supervised by Government appointed authority a consortium approach would come with initial funding by the farmers and a part by industry. The government should pay the authority managing the consortium for a few years. The industry happily gets the wood purchased at premium price as the paper industry takes forward. So, the best idea is to empower the farmers and get the wood certified and sell it at a premium price.
Mr Jikesh Thakkar, Executive Director, AIPM: But, we still don’t have mechanisms for agroforestry, farmers and wood based industry. We have a mechanism with the paper industry. There are many species available in states which are restricted so these can be available if the restriction is removed. Panel industry in India should replicate such standards. As Mr Bhajanka was saying earlier that we are producing 2 mn cbm/ annum and in 10 years we need to grow and make it 10 times. For that we really need to have such standards. We have processed the mandatory BIS for the panel industry and already started working on it. Many technical developments have been adopted with the state Forest Development Corporation, like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have developed GIS and GPS systems also, we must be involved in this process all across the country.
Dr Shiv S Panse, Forest Governance Expert & Technical Advisor Sustainable Forest and Natural Resource Management - Sustainability, Certification and Legality in Wood Product in India highlighting the forest certification and various issues said in the course of certification going to develop in near future.
PC Ray, APCCF, Forest Resource Management: Agroforestry is already sustainable but the problem is traceability and how we can do and regulate them. In Karnataka we have exempted 42 species from transit regulations and 27 species from felling regulations. We are working towards exempting felling and transit regulation more and more so that the farmers get less hassle. We are discussing a 2013 amendment to deregulate the licensing for wood based industry and make it free from saw mill licensing regulations.
Mr Arun Bansal, IFS (retd) Former ADGF (Addl Director General of Forest): What we want to do and who will bell the cat. The certification has been discussed for more than two decades now but no final stage we have reached till date. If the government does, then which ministry should do MoEF&CC, MoAg, or MoC&I. The entire mandate prima facie is the same but they are seeing from different angles. Secondly, the industry's requirements are totally different with different categories like paper mills, plywood etc. whether we want it only for the domestic market or fetch the global market as well.
The digital platform would be very good but what is the experience; six months back we floated the national transit permit system. Does anybody know about that, whether it is working or not? If not, why? So, if the simple national transit permit system piloted in two states does not work, what is the fate of the digital platform of the certification when we want to be globally acceptable? These are some of the questions that need to be answered by us all.