All Ilim Group Mills and Head Office successfully passed the audit of the National Forest Certification System (NFCS) of conformance to the forest management and supply chain standards.

All Ilim Group Mills and Head Office successfully passed the audit of the National Forest Certification System (NFCS) of conformance to the forest management and supply chain standards. Denis Mironov, General Director of the Russian Institute of Standardization, handed a supply chain certificate to the Company.

“The National Forest Certification System is a positive example of import substitution that will help Russian forestry companies to keep their positions and potential. Ilim Group successfully passed the audit and received a NFCS conformance certificate, which evidences that the Company operates in good faith and excludes the use of wood of doubtful origin,” said Denis Mironov, General Director of the Russian Institute of Standardization, at the certificate award ceremony in St. Petersburg.

The audit encompassed the Company’s forestry operations on leased timberland, as well as wood and forestry products supply chains. It is important to confirm the transparency and acceptability of the supply chain to develop relationships with wood suppliers and partners that purchase our products and to cooperate to promote NFCS in international markets.

“Sustainable and responsible forest management is a foundation of our business intended to last for many years. Previously, our products were certified to foreign standards, but after NFCS creation, Russian forestry and pulp and paper companies will receive national system certificates,” commented Aleksei Lomko, CEO of Ilim Group.

Russia's first NFCS conformance certificates were issued by the Nizhny Novgorod State Regional Center for Standardization, Metrology and Testing (TsSM) to Ilim’s Bratsk, Koryazhma, and Ust-Ilimsk Mills. A forest certification authority accredited with the National Accreditation System was set up at Nizhny Novgorod TsSM (one of Top5 largest centers of the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Rosstandart)). Certificates of conformity were issued for five years. The forest management certificates were handed by Alexandr Medvedev, Director of Nizhny Novgorod TsSM.

“It is a new and certainly ambitious area for us and we are grateful to Ilim Group that became our main and first client for this service,” Alexandr Medvedev, Director of Nizhny Novgorod TsSM, said when presenting the certificates.

Leading experts from the Russian forestry industry were involved in NFCS development. The system was registered in 2023 by the Russian Institute of Standardization. The NFCS certificate demonstrates that the Company is a responsible forest user with socially-oriented, environmental, and economically sustainable forest management practices confirmed by independent audits.

About Ilim Group:

Ilim Group is the leader of the Russian pulp and paper industry and one of the industry leaders globally. The Company is one of the world’s top seven producers of bleached softwood pulp. In Russia, the company accounts for 76% of all market pulp, 17% of packaging materials, and 26% of white papers produced. About half of Ilim products are exported to China, where the Company is the leading player in the wood-free corrugated materials segment. Apart from its key Russian and Chinese markets, Ilim also prioritizes the markets of the Middle East, India, Africa, and Latin America.