• Compliance with laws and FSC Principles
• Tenure and use rights and responsibilities
• Indigenous peoples' rights
• Community relations and worker's rights
• Benefits from the forest
• Environmental impact
• Management plan
• Monitoring and assessment
• Maintenance of high conservation value forests
• Plantations

More information on FSC, including their principles and criteria, is available on their website at www.fsccanada.org.

FSC in the Marketplace

FSC is highly regarded in the global marketplace where Al-Pac sells its pulp, and is endorsed by environmental groups including Sierra Club, Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund.

Many customers around the world are introducing FSC-certified paper and seeking suppliers of FSC-certified kraft pulp to meet growing consumer demand for environmentally-responsible products. Al-Pac also achieved Chain of Custody (CoC) certification that allows pulp customers and paper consumers to track a product from the shelf back to the forest to confirm the product originates either from a certified well-managed source and or a company controlled source.

Companies who use FSC-certified pulp can affix the FSC logo to their product to demonstrate to consumers they support environmentally and socially responsible forest management practices.

FSC Controlled Wood

Alberta-Pacific is committed to maintaining an internationally competitive and environmentally sustainable enterprise.

To help meet this commitment Alberta-Pacific will avoid using wood fibre harvested:

• Illegally;
• In violation of traditional and civil rights;
• In forests where high conservation values are threatened by management activities;
• In forests being converted to plantations or non-forest use;
• From forests in which genetically modified trees are planted.

Please contact us for a copy of the Controlled Wood Policy.

Communities and the Environment

FSC certification provides assurance that Al-Pac is operating in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Al-Pac's socially responsible operations include involving communities in forest management planning, such as the company's Landscape Advisory Group, supporting communities through employment and contracts, and understanding and respecting Aboriginal values of the forest.

The company's demonstrated environmentally responsible operations include implementing ecosystem management to maintain biodiversity and a commitment to set aside more than 200,000 hectares of forest to serve as ecological benchmark areas.

Continuous Improvement

In Al-Pac’s 2005 FSC final report SmartWood, Al-Pac’s third-party auditor, acknowledged several positive activities taking place within Al-Pac’s practices. The audit also helped identify areas that the company will address as part of its Continuous Improvement Process. The report identified 23 conditions for which Al-Pac has successfully addressed and closed. For details of the 2005 Summary Report click here.

Since 2005 annual surveillance audits have been conducted. These surveillance audits highlighted areas for Al-Pac to improve its practices. To view the annual Public Summary Reports see links below.

Al-Pac, in conjunction with SmartWood, is conducting the five-year reassessment audit beginning in February of 2010. The field audit will take place February 22 to 26, 2010 with the final report expected in June 2010.

Reports and Links Associated with Forest Stewardship Council Certification

Third-party reports:
2005 Public Summary Report
2005 Final Report
2006 Public Summary Report
2007 Public Summary Report
2008 Public Summary Report
2009 Public Summary Report
Al-Pac's FSC Pre-Industrial Forest Condition Report

Links
Forest Stewardship Council Canada
Forest Stewardship Council International Centre
SmartWood