Paper receipts support sustainable forestry

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Paper receipts support sustainable forestry

Paper is made from trees harvested from sustainably managed forests which are a renewable, natural resource.

A healthy market for forest products, such as paper receipts, helps promote the long-term responsible management of forests.

Between 2010 and 2015, forest area expanded in the U.S. and Europe and stayed roughly the same in Canada.

– FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment, 2015

The most common cause of global deforestation is the conversion of forest land to agriculture and livestock areas.1

“The forest industry has made significant progress in improving sustainability over the last years, and use of products from sustainably-managed forests is increasing.”

– United Nations FAO, 2018

Forest certification to independent third-party standards promotes forest management practices that result in outcomes that are economically viable, ecologically sound and socially just.

Globally, a total of 428 million hectares are certified under the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (including the Sustainable Forestry Initiative or SFI) and the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®).1 Roughly half of this area is in North America, one third is in Europe, and about 5% is in South America.2

Certification of the forests which supply raw materials to paper and board mills in Europe for pulp production has increased to 75%.3

The number of commitments by companies to ensure that their raw materials do not cause deforestation increased globally from 579 in 2016 to 760 in 2017.4

Paper is responsible for about 13% of the world’s wood harvest; fuelwood (50%) and lumber (28%) are by far the largest users.

– Derived from FAOSTAT, 2015

7% of the world’s forests are plantations and they provide a third of the world’s forest products. They are vital to the survival of natural forests, which would otherwise be in greater danger of over-use.5

Sources
  1. UN FAO, 2018. State of the World’s Forests. http://www.fao.org/3/I9535EN/i9535en.pdf
  2. PEFC, 2018. https://www.pefc.org/about-pefc/who-we-are/facts-a-figures
  3. CEPI, 2015. http://www.cepi.org/system/files/public/documents/publications/sustainability/2015/2015-icfpa-sustainability-progress-report.pdf
  4. Donofrio et al., 2017. https://www.forest-trends.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2017SupplyChange_Trackin-Committments.pdf
  5. FSC. 2015. https://ic.fsc.org/en/news-updates/the-root-of-the-matter-blog/id/135

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