Forest Certification

As a company operating in many jurisdictions with different systems for managing forest resources, West Fraser has selected certification standards that match the forest regions where we operate. The consumers of our products also recognize these high standards in the markets where our products are sold.

Forest certification is a voluntary tool that demonstrates West Fraser’s wood products are sourced from sustainably managed forests. Third-party independent auditors verify that we have met high standards in key criteria. That includes the sustainable growing and harvesting of trees with the protection of habitat, wildlife, plants, water and soil quality and a wide range of other conservation goals.

94% of Canada’s forest lands are publicly owned, and harvesting is only allowed through government granted licences. West Fraser follows strict forest management requirements to maintain and renew government-granted harvesting rights in Canada. All of the Canadian woodlands operations directly managed by West Fraser are independently certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) fibre sourcing and forest management standards. SFI® is an internationally-recognized sustainable forest management certification program.

West Fraser does not directly manage forestlands in the United States and Ontario, where we purchase the logs needed for our operations. All U.S. timber procurement meets SFI fibre sourcing requirements, as well as Ontario. In the province of Quebec where the provincial government has full responsibility for forest management, including reforestation, West Fraser maintains SFI forest management certification on behalf of the provincial government under a joint agreement of collaboration for approximately 2.6 M hectares.

SFI Fibre Sourcing Certifications

SFI Forest Management Certifications

CHAIN-OF-CUSTODY CERTIFICATION

PEFC logo

West Fraser maintains the PEFC (Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification) Chain of Custody of Forest and Tree Based Products – Requirements (PEFC ST 2002:2020) across all operations in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, Inverness, UK and Genk, Belgium and also maintains the SFI Chain of Custody certification across oriented-strand board (OSB) operations in North America. West Fraser remains committed to diligent implementation of these standard requirements. These chain of custody standards assure customers and other interested parties that the wood fiber in the supply chain used in the manufacturing process comes from sources that have a negligible risk of originating from controversial sources and comply with applicable laws, regulations, and sustainable resource standards.

West Fraser’s pulp operation and medium-density fibreboard (MDF) mills are registered to the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC®) Standard for Chain of Custody Certification. Trademark License Code: FSC-C109677. As well, all of our UK and European operations producing OSB, particleboard, and MDF (Trademark License Code: FSC-C012533) and the La Sarre OSB mill in Quebec, Canada are certified to FSC Chain of Custody (Trademark License Code: FSC-C023585). The Genk, Belgium and Inverness, Scotland OSB facilities are also certified to the PEFC Chain of Custody.

Click here for more information about our Chain-of-Custody certifications for our pulp operation.

Click here for our Chain-of-Custody Certification for our engineered wood operations in North America.

To access more of our certifications and other documents in U.K/Europe, please visit the West Fraser U.K. page for more information. You can filter for "certificates" on this page to specifically access our certifications.

ADDITIONAL CERTIFICATIONS

West Fraser maintains certifications specific to our products. You can find details about additional product-specific certifications in the Products section in the ‘Environmental Specifications’ page for every wood product we produce.