AUGUSTA – Gov. John Baldacci stood in front of a row of loggers, foresters and mill owners Wednesday morning and challenged Maine’s forest products industry to become certified as environmentally sustainable.

Today, about 6.5 million of Maine’s 17.8 million forested acres are marketing “green” certified lumber. Baldacci announced an initiative Wednesday to increase certification to 10 million acres by 2007 – 56 percent of all working forest in the state.

To meet the goal, it is crucial that Maine’s 100,000 small wood lot owners get involved with certification of their 6 million collective acres, the governor said.

While forest certification is typically an environmental issue, the governor’s announcement focused on the economics of Maine’s struggling forest products industry.

Green certification can be an important marketing tool for the state, he said.

Industry analysts say that environmentally sound paper and lumber are poised to boom, and the governor believes Maine can earn a reputation for producing the products that often sell for higher prices.

“It is going to be good for our economy. It is going to support production in our mills, and at the same time, it will make sure that our environment is being protected,” Baldacci said.

David Refkin, who manages paper purchasing for AOL Time Warner in New York, said Wednesday at the press conference that his company aims to purchase 80 percent of the millions of dollars worth of paper it uses in books and magazines from green certified forests.

“Maine is a crucial part of this,” Refkin said. “We buy a lot of paper in this state and we’d like to keep on doing that.”

Wednesday representatives of forest products businesses expressed their support for the program, and several companies announced they have begun the certification process for a total of nearly 800,000 additional acres.

No company will be required to certify its Maine land, however. The governor’s initiative is market-based and voluntary. The state aims to lead by example, Baldacci said.

Beginning immediately, the state will seek to certify its own forests. Bureau of Parks and Lands property and Baxter State Park are already certified by the most strenuous system available. However, tens of thousands of acres of property owned by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the University of Maine are not, said Maine Forest Service Director Alec Giffen.

The state also will purchase its paper and other products from sustainably managed forests whenever possible and give certified companies preference for competitive state cost-sharing programs, Baldacci said.

Commissioner of Conservation Pat McGowan said Wednesday the state does not intend to endorse any particular certification scheme, but instead will accept any of five common programs, including those of the Forest Stewardship Council, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Tree Farm, International Organization for Standardization and Canada’s National Sustainable Forest Management Standard.

Environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Maine Audubon, applauded the governor’s goal, but raised concerns that not all certification schemes are created equal. Environmentalists overwhelmingly prefer the Forest Stewardship Council.

Details of how to encourage certification and market green products to the state’s advantage will be addressed by a new advisory committee headed by former state Forest Service director Tom Doak and made up of industry, academic and environmental organization representatives. The committee’s recommendations are due January 2004.