23 February 2014
Flat-pack giant Ikea has had a forestry stewardship certificate suspended after it was revealed the furniture chain has been felling 600-year-old trees from protected woodlands.
The Forest Stewardship Council, which promotes the responsible management of the world's woodlands, says the wood Ikea cuts from forests in Karelia, Russia, isn't being harvested sustainably.Swedwood, the Swedish firm's forestry subsidiary, has been refused certification by the international not for-profit organisation for its Karelia operation until action is taken.
North Karelia, near the Russian-Finnish border, is home to one of Europe's last great forests and Swedwood has leases to log 700,000 acres provided it avoids old trees and does not clear steep slopes, which erode without tree cover. However, an audit found a number of 'major deviations' from the rules, including the harvesting of 'key biotopes', or older trees, The Sunday Times reported.
Simon Counsell, executive director of Rainforest Foundation UK, said ancient trees would have ended up in flat-pack Ikea furniture.
Ikea, which made global profits of £2.7billion last year, is believed to use around one per cent of the world's wood supply. And, at the same time it promotes the sustainability of its wood.
An IKEA spokeswoman told MailOnline: 'Wood is one of our most important materials and it is used in many of our products.
'For us it is important to offer home furnishing products of good quality to low prices. However, a low price must never be at the expense of quality of production conditions.
'Our FSC certificate for Karelia has been suspended. We see the suspension of the certificate as highly temporary.
'The deviations mainly cover issues related to facilities and equipment for our co-workers, forestry management as well as training of our forestry co-workers.
'A majority of the deviations have already been corrected and our full focus is now on correcting the remaining deviations and reinstating the FSC certificate urgently. And whilst disappointed we also believe that the certificate suspension shows that the FSC system working.
'We take our responsibility for the forests and the people who work there very seriously and we appreciate that correcting the deviations will improve the way we manage the forest in Karelia.
Source: Daily Mail. To read more, click here.