WWF and the Vancouver Declaration

Having recently announced the Vancouver Declaration at our FSC 2017 General Assembly, where we met with a number of industry delegates from organizations already supporting the initiative, we took the opportunity to speak to some of them about why they have come on board.

We spoke to Julia Young, manager of the WWF Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN) in the UK about why she feels it’s important that businesses support sustainable forestry and the Vancouver Declaration.

What does the declaration mean to you?

This is a welcome commitment by leading companies to signal that they support FSC as the most credible certification scheme to meet their sustainability targets for foresters. It’s signalling that they want to see robust standards, they want transparency and they are willing to be transparent, which is real progress.

WWF welcomes this initiative. Why is this initiative important to the organization?

We already actively encourage people to look for FSC certification when they’re buying products – to know that they’re buying something that’s from a forest that’s being well managed for the future. This is the next step forward in that commitment.

Naturally, we want to see public statements where a company is stating its intention to pursue the sustainability agenda, by which it can be held to account. This is about securing forests for the future. And we hope in the future there will be further improvements in terms of environmental and social outcomes.

What would you say to those thinking of supporting the Vancouver Declaration?

The declaration and the support it’s receiving are a real sign that these questions about supply chain, traceability and sustainability are here to stay. It’s in the best interests of companies to get on board and answer this pressure.

The Vancouver Declaration will help give brands and businesses a way to communicate and follow up on the credibility they need in this area, showing that the company has invested in sustainability and means to deliver on its promise.