OREANDA-NEWS. On 04 May 2009 was announced, that winners of the All-Russian Competition Russia's Best Enterprises: Progress, Efficiency, Responsibility held by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs received their awards in Moscow on April 16. Responsible Forest Manager award went to Ilim Group.

The awards ceremony was held at the RUIE Industry and Innovations session. Award certificates were presented to the winners by Alexander Shokhin, President of the Union.

ILIM Group is one of the major global leaseholders of forest resources and is guided by the international forest management standards in its operations. The Company was among the first P and P companies to begin voluntary certification of its forest management practices and chain of custody under the international standards of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Ilim Group has already certified approximately 5 million hectares of its leased timberland and is currently the leader of forest certification in Russia. The area covered by the Company's annual reforestation efforts equals the area of its logging operations.

Russia's Best Enterprises: Progress, Efficiency, Responsibility Competition was established by RUIE in August 2008. The goal of the competition is to identify the most rapidly developing companies in the industry on the basis of various ratings in order to promote sustainable development of independent and responsible companies in the long-term economic interests of the business community.