Paper and environment

Forest protection is an increasing concern of the paper industry,
and it is not simple to replace cut trees. To Know: 
Three trees are planted in order to replace a cut one.

Thus, paper industry has set up a sustainably forest management, that looks like cycle of crops in agriculture.

Moreover, a lot of wood employed by paper industry comes from wood that is used for furniture production and building. So, paper industry is not responsible for destruction of tropical forest or for deforestations that  suppress vegetation and cause the destruction of fauna habitat, soil erosion and silting of rivers and streams.

Last years, in order to promote the responsible management of the world's forests, FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council Certification) and PEFC (Programme for Endorsement for the Forest Certification shemes) were created. These have set up a system of approvals granted to third parties certifying that the products they use come from sustainably managed forests processes, including processes that ensure the preservation of old tree population.

These approvals include « protection chains », that is an accreditation of all parties involved in printout production, from the person in charge of forest to the editor, passing through pulp production plant, printing paper producer. It guarantees to final customer operating conditions of the wood used in the production of the printed product he's using.

FSC® criteria are more strict than those of PEFC. Although FSC® accreditations are increasing, FSC certified forests are less than PEFC ones. The employment of FSC® certified paper is considered one of the « good practices », but it is not always possible to use it. Sometimes, because of requirements about price or characteristics, companies have to choose PEFC certified paper. The use of FSC® paper is supported by several organizations like Friends of the Earth, Green Press Initiative, Rainforest Alliance, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, WWF.

Printed products can have FSC® or PEFC logo. 

Always more frequently governments and companies use paper coming from sustainably managed forests to print their products.

 

Paper is renewable, biodegradable, recyclable resource :
It protects forest and contibutes to its development :
Every year European forest spreads to 500.000 hectares!
And in 10 years, French forest has spread to 500.000 hectares !