{"id":38661,"date":"2023-12-19T11:02:33","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T05:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=38661"},"modified":"2025-04-23T13:11:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T07:41:27","slug":"ifwcs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ifwcs-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Indian Forest and Wood Certification Scheme (IFWCS): A Scheme to Counter Foreign Agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in Today\u2019s Article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>What is the IFWCS?<\/li>\n<li>How are Forests in India Managed?<\/li>\n<li>Need for the IFWCS<\/li>\n<li>Significance of the IFWCS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Amid rising international concerns on deforestation and illicit trade in timber, the Government of India has launched its own national forest certification scheme &#8211; The Indian Forest and Wood Certification Scheme (IFWCS).<\/li>\n<li>The IFWCS will validate entities that adhere to sustainable practices in management of forests and its products.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is the IFWCS?<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2023\/12\/19\/13\/15\/40\/65814a247d920405b624d94f_OI.PNG\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>IFWCS would offer &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>Certification for sustainable forest management,<\/li>\n<li>Sustainable management of trees outside forests like those in plantations, and<\/li>\n<li>Chain of custody which is a sort of guarantee of the traceability of a forest product throughout its supply chain, from the origins to the market.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Certification may be of use to &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>Forest management units,<\/li>\n<li>Corporations, or wood-based industries,<\/li>\n<li>Tree growers, timber or NTFP (Non-Timber Forest Produce) traders,<\/li>\n<li>Saw millers, exporters or importers of wood-based and NTFP-based products, and<\/li>\n<li>Other end-user industries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How are Forests in India Managed?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Forests in India are managed according to their respective working plans.<\/li>\n<li>These working plans have now been updated with the newly-developed Indian Forest Management Standards that contain 8 criteria, 69 indicators and 254 verifiers.<\/li>\n<li>These standards will be mandatory for all forest divisions in the country to implement.<\/li>\n<li>However, getting the certification is not mandatory for the forest divisions, even though they would become eligible if they adhere to these standards.\n<ul>\n<li>Obtaining the certification would depend on needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Need for the IFWCS<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A global investigation into deforestation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) had revealed that there were serious questions over the integrity of forest certifications.<\/li>\n<li>This has affected acceptance of Indian products in international markets and resulted in high dropout rates among certified entities.<\/li>\n<li>Europe and the US happen to be the largest export markets for India\u2019s forest-based products, particularly handicraft and furniture.\n<ul>\n<li>These markets have been tightening the rules for import of forest products because of greater sensitivity around deforestation on climate change concerns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>At the Glasgow climate change conference in 2021, over 100 countries had come together in a pledge to halt, and reverse, deforestation by 2030.<\/li>\n<li>Hence, the Government of India was planning to start its own certification scheme for improved regulation of the market.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ADFEhS6QiRA\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ADFEhS6QiRA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>Significance of the IFWCS<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It will offer an alternative to the private foreign certification agencies that have been operating in the Indian market for the last two decades.<\/li>\n<li>It will bring greater trust and transparency into the processes, and grant greater acceptability to Indian forest-based products in international markets.<\/li>\n<li>Right now, it is a government-initiated and government-backed scheme, but eventually it is likely to evolve into an independent entity like the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) or Quality Council of India (QCI).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What was the outcome of the Glasgow climate change conference?<\/h3>\n<p>At COP26 Glasgow 2021, countries ultimately agreed to a provision calling for a phase-down of coal power and a phase-out of \u201cinefficient\u201d fossil fuel subsidies.<\/p>\n<h3>\u00a0Q2) What is the Quality Council of India (QCI)?<\/h3>\n<p>QCI was set up as a society registered under Societies Registration Act of 1860 to establish an accreditation structure in the country.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/centre-launches-forest-certification-scheme-to-counter-foreign-agencies-9073713\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Centre launches forest certification scheme to counter foreign agencies<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/pib.gov.in\/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1985119\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>PIB<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The IFWCS would offer certification for sustainable forest management, sustainable management of trees outside forests like those in plantations, etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":38662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}