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Sustainable forest management

Sustainable forest management

Clairefontaine uses only pulp from forests which are 100 % certified for their environmental management.

The definition given by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is the following :

Sustainable forest management means "the stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfill, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national, and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems".

 Fôret Certifiée

Balle de Pâte PEFC – FSC

Generally speaking, the certification systems take into account the following points : the total wooded surface (the forest being a carbon "trap"), the age of the forest, the respect of plant and animal biodiversity, the interests of local populations as well as social and leasure aspects.

Amongst the main environmental forestry certifications, one can find :

  • PEFC (Pan European Forest Certification),
  • FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)


Contrary to generally accepted ideas, the younger a tree is, the more active it is, i.e. the more carbon dioxide it eliminates.

In France, more than a quarter of the territory is covered in forests. Each year, this surface increases by more than 25,000 hectares. In French forests almost 140 different tree species can be found. The wood consumed by the paper industry represents only 10 % of the annual production of French forests. And it comes mainly from sawmill offcuts and forest thinning.

( Sources : Cerig, Copacel )

Very attached to French forests, Clairefontaine takes an active part in their development and renewal. The group owns exclusively and upkeeps several hundred hectares of fir and spruce trees. It experiments on these wooded areas the most ecological management methods possible.