Definition of Terms

ENDANGERED, ANCIENT, OLD GROWTH, NATIVE, FRONTIER, AND HCVF FORESTS

These terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but have different meanings to different people and organizations. They all generally refer to forest areas that are relatively undisturbed by human management, ranging in size from a few acres to thousands of square miles. These areas may be near, surrounded by, or adjacent to forest areas that have been heavily disturbed or altered by human management.

ENDANGERED FORESTS

Endangered Forests are the most valuable forests on the globe, forests that would be irreparably harmed by industrial resource extraction. In practical terms this means these forests are "NO GO" and "NO BUY" forests. These forests comprise a large proportion of the world's remaining old-growth, primary and ancient forests in tropical, temperate and boreal zones.

These forests should be protected from industrial-scale resource extraction so that they may continue to provide the many goods and services they supply in their natural state, and to maintain biological diversity in forest ecosystems.

The definitions of Endangered Forests are meant as a tool and guidance for consumers of wood and paper products. The protection of Endangered Forests complements certification of logging operations under the Forest Stewardship Council.

There are four categories of endangered forests:

  • Intact forest landscape mosaics,
  • Naturally rare forest types,
  • Forest types that have been made rare due to human activity, and
  • Other forests that are ecologically critical for the protection of biological diversity.

ANCIENT or OLD-GROWTH FORESTS

Ancient or Old-Growth Forests include forest areas that are relatively undisturbed by human activity. Ancient forests vary significantly in age and structure from forest type to forest type and one biogeoclimatic zone to another. Boreal forests, temperate or tropical rainforests may all be classified as ancient or old growth forests. Ancient forests are characterized by the following features:

  • They have not undergone any significant industrial activity,
  • They are naturally regenerated and dominated by a range of native tree species,
  • Tree size, age and spacing vary widely,
  • Accumulations of dead standing trees (snags) and fallen trees are much more frequent than in younger forests,
  • Ancient forests contain trees that are large for the species and site combination,
  • The canopy of an ancient forest has many openings and the forest floor is lush with ferns, berry bushes, mosses etc.
  • Ancient/Old Growth forests have multiple canopy layers.

NATIVE FORESTS

Native forests are largely naturally regenerated forests of any age consisting of a mix of tree species typical and natural for the region and forest type.

FRONTIER FORESTS

Frontier forest is a term coined by the World Resources Institute and refers to “the world's remaining large intact natural forest ecosystems.” These are large forest tracts that are relatively undisturbed and big enough to maintain all of their biodiversity, including viable populations of the wide-ranging species associated with each forest type.

HIGH CONSERVATION VALUE FORESTS (HCVF)

High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) is a term coined by the Forest Stewardship Council and refers to forests that possess one or more of the following attributes:

  • Forest areas containing globally, regionally or nationally significant:
    • concentrations of biodiversity values (e.g. endemism, endangered species, refugia); and/or
    • large landscape level forests, contained within, or containing the management unit, where viable populations of most if not all naturally occurring species exist in natural patterns of distribution and abundance.
  • Forest areas that are in or contain rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems.
  • Forest areas that provide basic services of nature in critical situations (e.g. watershed protection, erosion control).
  • Forest areas fundamental to meeting basic needs of local communities (e.g. subsistence, health) and/or critical to local communities’ traditional cultural identity (areas of cultural, ecological, economic or religious significance identified in cooperation with such local communities).

For more information please see the Forest Stewardship Council web site.

PLANTATIONS

Plantations are not really forests, but rather places where trees are grown as a crop. Trees of a single species are manually planted close together in rows and are harvested in short rotations of only 25-40 years. Often, genetically engineered trees, as well as trees not native to the region are planted. The resulting stand usually bears little resemblance to the natural forests in the surrounding area and often does not provide the same quality of habitat or range of ecosystem services as natural forests. In many areas around the world, the conversion of native and old growth forests into plantations is a major threat.

However, plantations established on agricultural land or before 1994 and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council may help in reducing pressure to log native and endangered forests. Native forests converted into plantations after 1994 are uneligible for FSC certification.

CONVERSION or SUBSITUTION

Conversion or Subsitution refers to the transformation of native forests into plantations.

FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an independent, international, multi-stakeholder forestry certification organization. It trains, accredits and monitors third-party certifiers around the world and works to establish international forest management standards. Although other organizations, including forest and paper industry associations, offer other types of certification systems, the FSC is the only one that is verifiably performance-based, has widespread market acceptance, and has established credibility with the major environmental and social organizations worldwide.

CERTIFICATION

The process of evaluating forest practices against an agreed standard by an accredited independent third-party.

INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY CERTIFICATION

The process by which a separate entity that is considered reliable and unbiased investigates and verifies a company's adherence to a set of criteria that represent a high standard of excellence. For forest management and the labeling of products, currently the only acceptable standard is set by the Forest Stewardship Council.

FOREST PRODUCTS AUDIT

The process through which a consumer company identifies, for all wood and paper-based products it purchases, the company, country, specific forest operation, and species of the tree-based fibers used in those products in order to determine if they are derived from endangered forests. An audit may also identify other characteristics of the production and distribution process (e.g. chlorine free or post-consumer content).

CHAIN-OF-CUSTODY

The step-by-step accounting of the channel through which forest products are distributed from their forest of origin to the final end-product. It may, for example, be used to trace the origin of pulp used to make paper and paper products, or to follow the handling and manufacturing of lumber to verify the origin of the wood in the resulting end-product.

LONG-SETTLED, FOREST-DEPENDENT, INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY

A community that largely depends upon the forest for its survival and which is primarily composed of the descendants of the original native inhabitants of the territory in which it is located.

PAPER RELATED TERMINOLOGY

Recycled Products are products that have been reconstituted to new fiber. Post consumer recycled paper differs from paper that is labeled as recycled/pre-consumer recycled paper (described below). Often paper labeled as recycled also contains virgin fiber. Recycled paper is often a mix of pre-consumer, post-consumer and virgin fibers.

  • Post-consumer material is an end product that has completed its life cycle as a consumer item and would otherwise have been disposed of as a solid waste.
  • Pre-consumer material refers to any recovered material other than post-consumer, including some waste from manufacturing, converting, and printing processes.
  • Recycled content, as listed on product labels, may include post-consumer and/or pre-consumer materials. If the contents of a product are labeled only "recycled," without specifying post-consumer content, the product may contain only pre-consumer materials.

     

  • Bleaching process terms:
    • TCF: totally chlorine-free (virgin paper produced without chlorine or chlorine derivatives)
    • PCF: processed chlorine-free (contains recycled content produced without elemental chlorine or chlorine derivatives, although one or more fiber components may have originally been bleached with chlorine or chlorine derivatives. Any virgin pulp that is PCF is also TCF)
    • % PCF: partially processed chlorine-free (the listed percent is recycled content produced without elemental chlorine or chlorine derivatives, but the virgin portion is not TCF)
    • ECF: elementally chlorine-free (virgin paper produced without elemental chlorine, but with chlorine derivatives)
    • If none of the above terms are listed, the paper is bleached with chlorine.

AGRICULTURAL RESIDUE

Agricultural residue refers to usable materials recovered primarily from annual crops as byproducts of food and fiber production.

AGRICULTURAL FIBERS

Agricultural fibers are harvested from non-wood plants that are grown intentionally for tree free paper or other fiber products, such as kenaf and industrial hemp.