Certified forests

1. Forest management certification
   An independent verifier audits the management of a given forest area, including the felling and hauling of timber in the forest, in order to determine whether management procedures comply with the certification criteria. Audits usually include inspections, comparisons with the requirements, and reports on any discrepancies.
2. Chain-of-custody certification
   Chain-of-custody is a verified system used to prove that the wood comes from a certified forest. If extended to mill and product level, such systems enable forest certification labelling. Chain-of-custody is established and audited according to the rules set by the relevant forest certification system, for example PEFC or FSC.
3. Shares of certified wood raw material in mills' chain-of-custody systems
4. Shares of certified wood raw material in customers' chain-of-custody systems
5. To know the share of certified wood raw material in the end product, chain-of-custody certification must be conducted at every stage of the supply chain.

Uncertified forests

1. Contract clauses
   
   Environmental and wood origin clauses are included in wood purchasing contracts to ensure suppliers are committed to Stora Enso’s policies and practices.

   • Wood must be procured and logged in accordance with legislation and instructions.
   • Wood must not be purchased from protected areas, areas planned for protection, or other restricted areas, unless such purchases are in line with conservation goals and plans.
   • Suppliers must know and be able to verify the origin of the wood they supply.
   • Stora Enso has the right to audit suppliers, their logging areas, and the systems used for collecting and storing data on the origin of the wood.

   
   
2. Wood origin data
   
   Wood origin data on every harvesting area is compiled into Stora Enso’s database, including:
   

   • locations of harvesting sites
   • legal data on the ownership of the wood
   • environmental values
   • types of forest harvesting
   • forest management classes
   • forest certification data
   • loading points
   • volumes of harvest and volumes of delivery
   • forest conservation data
   • valuable habitat data.

   
   
3. External auditing
   
   To increase transparency, Stora Enso strives to obtain third-party verification and certification for traceability systems.
   
   
4. Internal and supplier auditing
   
   Internal audits are conducted for management and monitoring purposes, and to improve the systems.
   
   Supplier audits are designed to improve suppliers’ environmental performance. Suppliers are randomly selected for audits. Additional audits focus on certain areas, new suppliers, uncertified suppliers with high volumes, and suppliers who have previously had problems in implementing Stora Enso’s policies and principles.
   
   Field audits verify the wood origin data, and enable the verification of forestry practices, compliance with legislation, legal documents, forest certification, biodiversity aspects and social responsibility aspects such as worker safety. Field audits always take place in co-operation with the supplier.
   
   
5. Reporting the origin of wood to the mill