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[National] Wood is one of our most important materials and it is used in many of our products. For us it is important to offer home furnishing products of good quality to low prices. However, a low price must never be at the expense of quality of production conditions.

Our FSC certificate for Karelia has been suspended. We see the suspension of the certificate as highly temporary. The deviations mainly cover issues related to facilities and equipment for our co-workers, forestry management as well as training of our forestry co-workers. A majority of the deviations have already been corrected and our full focus is now on correcting the remaining deviations and reinstating the FSC certificate urgently. And whilst disappointed we also believe that the certificate suspension shows that the FSC system working. We take our responsibility for the forests and the people who work there very seriously and we appreciate that correcting the deviations will improve the way we manage the forest in Karelia.

While operating in Karelia, we have worked together with NGOs and authorities to improve forestry management in the region, for example set aside forest land and to leave trees standing on the logging sites.

IKEA is committed to responsible forest management and to the principles of the FSC. Our lease in Karelia has been FSC certified since 2006 and we believe that a reinstated FSC certificate will continue to be the best protection for natural values in the logging areas. Once we have transitioned our operations, we will continue to support the development of responsible forest management in Russia, which will also have positive impact on the Karelia region. We will do this through organizations such as the FSC.

What is our comment to the claim that IKEA is harvesting 600 year old trees?

This claim is misleading. The temporary suspension of the FSC certificate is not related to old growth forest. It is related to deviations within forest management, manuals and co-worker equipment. We do not use 600 year old trees in our products. The average age of the trees we are cutting in the lease is 160 years.

Karelia is an area with high natural values. 22% of the lease is identified as High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF as per definition of FSC) and we do not log from these areas.

Background

The IKEA Industry forestry operations in Karelia, Russia have been FSC-certified since 2006 and are controlled annually by external independent audits carried out by accredited FSC certification bodies.

The latest audit was carried out in October 2013 and the preliminary results where good with only minor deviations. However, in the final audit report, of January 31, deviations resulted in a temporary suspension of the FSC certificate of the Karelia leases. A majority of the deviations have already been closed and we are now working full force to close the remaining deviations and to get the certificate reinstated as soon as possible.

This Press Release is courtesy of www.ikea.com

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