The Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development (Iwokrama) has retained its Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC™) Certification for Forest Management following the annual surveillance audit in October 2023.
Iwokrama said in a press release on January 12th that the Certificate for Forest Management was last renewed in October of 2022, confirming that the Iwokrama Forest has maintained its certification uninterrupted since October 2016 (the Iwokrama received initial certification in 2008).
Iwokrama said that the FSC™ certification is the highest international accolade that Forest Managers can receive, and is a testament to the Centre’s application of international social, ecological and environmental best practices. Iwokrama’s forest management procedures and policies, the release noted, were rigorously measured against the Interim National Standard for Guyana (FSC-STD-GUY-01-2020) which includes 10 principles, 70 criteria and 213 indicators. Key to the adherence to FSC™ guidelines is that forest managers must follow all national rules, laws and guidelines including the GFC’s comprehensive Codes of Practice. The assessment team evaluated all elements of Iwokrama’s operations applicable to the standard to determine compliance against national and international benchmarks. Non-compliances are categorized as “observations”, “minor corrective actions” or “major corrective actions”.
The Iwokrama Centre said during the recent surveillance audit, Iwokrama received only 1 observation, which it said is a normal part of any assessment / audit process. Based on the severity of the non-compliance with the standard, the release continued, it could prevent the applicant from being certified. Iwokrama noted that in recent years many international buyers and consumers have increased demands for proof of forest products being sourced from well-managed forests, and currently, many of the major global markets require some sort of certification for wood imports. To this end, Iwokrama noted that the European Union and the Government of Guyana are also pursuing a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) which will allow more access of Guyana’s wood to EU member countries.
The Iwokrama Forest noted that the Centre is the first to have maintained this certification in Guyana thus raising the bar for forest management. “We are pleased to note that other forest managers have followed suit so that there now two other forest management certificates and three chain-of-custody certificates in Guyana,” the release said.
Iwokrama said that it is also working closely with the Guyana Forestry Com-mission to develop the Guyana National Standard based on the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Systems’ (PEFC) requirements to ensure that more and more of Guyana’s forests can be certified.
