The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) has called on the biggest wood processing groups to sign up for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.


The conservation groups new report, The Forest Industry in the 21st Century, said just one fifth of the planets forests would be enough to satisfy future consumer demand for wood products if properly managed.


The WWF said that if the 10 companies that dominate the industry adopted the FSCs effective management processes, just 600m hectares of forest would be needed. At present, only 21.5m hectares worldwide are FSC-certified.


The report said that five companies International Paper, Georgia Pacific, Weyerhaeuser, Stora Enso and Smurfit Stone Container processed 20% of the worlds industrial wood.


The WWF hoped their conduct would provide the lead for another 95 significant players in the sector.


"We are targeting the most influential companies," said a spokesman for the WWF Forests for Life campaign. "We are looking for a knock-on effect really. It will be a constructive dialogue, not hard campaigning."


An FSC spokeswoman said: "We are making pretty good progress. A lot of it has happened in the last few years."


Stora Enso has FSC certification for its woodlands in Sweden.


Story by Adam Hill