SWEDEN: FSC Certification for Church Forests

UPDATE: AUGUST 2007, ABP, Europe largest pension fund, has allocated US$60m to the Global Solidarity Forest Fund (GSFF) of the Church of Sweden and Norway.

The Church of Sweden is one of the country’s largest forest owners. In an unprecedented move, it agreed in 2000 to move towards certifying 15 per cent of its forests – more than 100,000 hectares – as sustainably managed under the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) guidelines. It also permanently designated one twentieth of forests in all 13 of its dioceses as protected areas.

With this Sacred Gift, the Church became the first commercial forest owner in the country to join the FSC process. Its commitment to environmental sustainability at all levels of church life stems from its belief in social justice and the need to treat with respect the gift of creation.

By 2001, the forests of the Västerås, Strängnes, Uppsala, Stockholm and Visby dioceses were FSC-certified. By early 2003 the Church had exceeded its original target of 15% of the forests under FSC and had achieved 25%.

	The forests of Omberg by Lake Vattern were given to the church in 1143

As the second part of its Sacred Gift, the Church of Sweden also pledged to boost its Parish Environmental Diploma scheme. The scheme requires parishes to conduct a comprehensive audit of resource use – both at an institutional level and in the domestic and professional lives of individual church members.

The scheme builds on recognised international environmental audit systems, but has adapted them specifically to the needs of the Church. Other churches, notably the Church of Norway, are considering their own versions of the scheme.

Initially the Church undertook to certify at least one hundred parishes by 2002. They reached this target by 2001 and now one quarter of all parishes have received an Environmental Diploma.

Further forestry links