Forest certification systems in Finland, Italy, Luxembourg and the Slovak Republic meet its globally recognized Sustainability Benchmarks and have been re-endorsed, PEFC International, the world’s largest forest certification organization, announced today. All systems successfully completed the comprehensive and thorough endorsement process and gained approval by the organization’s membership.
“We’re very pleased that we succeeded in achieving global recognition by PEFC International yet again,” said Joseph Crochet, President of PEFC Luxembourg asbl. “PEFC’s endorsement process is renowned for its rigor, and this outcome confirms the excellent work and high ambitions of our stakeholders nationally.”
National forest certification systems that have developed standards in line with PEFC requirements can apply for endorsement by PEFC International. To achieve endorsement, they need to meet PEFC’s Sustainability Benchmarks, which are based on broad societal consensus expressed in international, intergovernmental, multi-stakeholder processes and guidelines.
In addition to sustainable forest management requirements, the Sustainability Benchmarks also include strict requirements concerning the development of the standards at national level, PEFC Finland’s Chairperson Ritva Toivonen explained. “Extensive, transparent and inclusive collaboration of all interested parties is necessary and important,” Mrs. Toivonen emphasized. “PEFC forest certification is above all a people’s matter, not an organizations’ matter.”
Participation is also an integral part of the endorsement process at international level, which requires an independent assessor to address all comments submitted by stakeholders globally during a mandatory, sixty day consultation period.
“The value that PEFC brings to the forest cannot be underestimated, not only in terms of sustainability benefits, but also as a mechanism requiring ongoing dialogue among all actors,” said Antonio Brunori, Secretary General of PEFC Italy. “With PEFC requiring national standards to be revised every five years, stakeholders keep in contact and continue to refine their understanding of the most appropriate approach to sustainable forest management at local level. In Italy, this resulted in an increase of prescriptive elements and additional normative indicators that forest managers need to comply with in order to achieve PEFC certification."
“PEFC offers an ideal framework for continuous improvement,” Hubert Palus, PEFC Slovak Republic National Secretary agreed. “PEFC’s bottom up approach requires standards to be locally developed as opposed to globally adopted. This forces local stakeholders to carefully consider and elaborate what best delivers sustainable forestry within their specific national context, while at the same time being in compliance with globally recognized benchmarks.”