MeadWestvaco Chooses American Tree Farm System, Root: 1 Wine Partners with American Forests

by | Apr 5, 2013

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Packaging and packaging materials supplier MeadWestvaco Corporation has said it will give purchasing preference to certified wood supplies – specifically wood that is certified under the American Tree Farm System.

The company currently certifies its forestlands under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and also seeks to purchase wood fiber from responsible third-party suppliers.

The announcement is a facet of the company’s plan to increase the amount of certified fiber used across its global manufacturing operations. Other elements include maintaining a priority market for certified wood over non-certified wood; tracking certified wood and using this chain of custody information to develop programs to increase certified furnish; and expanding of its current landowner assistance system by promoting ATFS certification, including group certification.

In the US, MWV says it sources fiber primarily from non-industrial, privately-owned forestland and fiber from family forests. The American Tree Farm System provides the mechanism to increase certified fiber from family forests.

The ATFS is a program of the American Forest Foundation, and represents more than 89,000 family forest owners, or 27 million acres of US forestland. The ATFS standard has been endorsed under the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification.

In other forests news, Chilean wine brand Root: 1 from vintner Viña Ventisquero has partnered with American Forests to fund reforestation projects across the US with the aim to plant 20,000 trees. Root: 1’s Help a Forest Take Root program has pledged $10,000 to the American Forests Global ReLeaf program.

Also, until June 30, Root: 1 has set aside $20,000 in order to increase its donation by one dollar for every virtual tree planted by visitors to Root1forest.com.

The wine maker, which is Chile’s first certified sustainable winery, is partnering with the Global ReLeaf program for the fourth year and they so far have planted 40,000 trees. Overall, the reforesting program has planted close to 45 million trees in every US state and more than 38 countries since 1990, the winemaker says.

Yesterday, Asia Pulp & Paper responded to complaints from NGOs that two of its suppliers were clearing natural forest in West Kalimantan Province. APP and The Forest Trust, a nonprofit group that worked with APP on its Forest Conservation Policy, said the investigation found evidence of clear cutting — but it was not related to APP.

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