On 20th October, 2009, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a major paper company in Indonesia, held a LEI certified paper seminar in Tokyo. The LEI certification is a certification developed by LEI (Indonesia Ecolabeling Institute) to give an endorsement to sustainable forestry management. This is an Indonesian version of the forest certification system of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) which is headquartered in Germany. Papers made of certified wood materials derived from such forests are dubbed as certified paper.

Environmental NGOs have been criticizing that wood materials used by APP were harvested from high conservation value forests. In response to such criticisms, several international or Japanese companies terminated to purchase papers from APP. In order to overcome such suspicions, APP has decided to launch LEI certified paper.

In the past, environmentally friendly papers were mostly recycled papers, however, FSC certified papers are beginning to get recognition due to the recycled paper content falsification issue has come to the fore.

Recently, certification systems for agriculture, forestry and fishery have started up one after another. One of the reasons why certified products have become widespread is that companies are now required to conserve biodiversity.

As demand for certified products increases, various certification systems have started to evolve in the same business sector such as LEI certification acquired by APP and SGEC (Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council) in Japan. While FSC and MSC were developed with the backing of environmental NGOs, most latecomer certification systems such as SGEC and MEL (Marine Eco-label) were developed by the initiative of manufacturers. In the background, there is manufacturers’ motivation to set standards which are suited to the reality of each country and to acquire the certification at a lower cost.

On the other hand, positions of preceding certification brands such as FSC are being more firmly established and it is uncertain whether the latecomer certifications can be recognized by the market. The key will be the level of latecomer certification systems and how they are evaluated by consumers and purchasing managers in charge of green products at corporations.