BUCKSPORT – The four coated-paper mills owned by Verso Paper, including mills in Bucksport and Jay, have been independently audited and certified to the Forest Stewardship Council Chain of Custody Standard.

This certification assures that procedures exist to document FSC-certified fiber as it passes through the supply chain from the forest through the manufacturing process to Verso’s customers, according to a company press release. Verso expects to offer FSC-certified products to its customers in early 2008.

“We have the systems available to track the wood from harvest to the time it gets to the customer,” said Verso Paper Holdings LLC spokesman Bill Cohen. “We can show that we maintain the certification standards all along the line.”

Cohen said the company has been working to obtain this certification for more than a year. The process required audits of Verso procedures that were conducted by the Rainforest Alliance SmartWood Program, the world’s largest FSC forest certifier.

“Certifying Verso’s mills to the FSC Chain of Custody Standard allows us to verify the amount of FSC-certified fiber in our products, and doing so is one of the many ways we help our customers achieve their sustainability objectives,” said Craig Liska, vice president of sustainability. “Verso recognizes and supports all credible third-party forest certification standards, including FSC, because they encourage responsible forest management globally.”

As required for its FSC chain of custody certification, Verso also meets the FSC Controlled Wood Standard.

Under this standard, the company has demonstrated that it has developed and implemented responsible procurement practices that enable Verso to identify and avoid purchasing controversial wood fiber that is harvested illegally, in violation of traditional or civil rights from forests where high-conservation values are threatened, from forests being converted to plantations or nonforest use, or from forests where genetically modified trees are planted.

Verso already practices sustainable forestry in Maine, according to Cohen, but increasingly, customers are demanding this type of third-party certification. It was an issue earlier this year when L.L. Bean ended a 23-year relationship with the Bucksport mill and sought another paper supplier for its catalogs.

Although company officials did not discuss the reasons for the switch, they said that its new contract would allow Bean to increase the recycled content in the paper it buys and to use paper made from fiber that has been independently certified for sustainable harvest and regeneration practices.

While only 11 percent of forests globally are certified to a third-party forest certification standard, approximately 59 percent of the fiber used in Verso’s products comes from third-party certified sources. Verso relies on a number of different third-party sustainability certifications, including FSC, Cohen said. Cohen said the company is committed to increasing that amount to about 80 percent.

Rich Hewitt may be reached at rhewitt@bangordailynews.net or 667-9394.