Promoting sustainable forest management and having it recognized and rewarded in the supply chain from the local to the global level is a key priority shared by the many delegates who attended the 2015 PEFC Forest Certification Week in Montreux, Switzerland. Sources: PEFC/PR Newswire
Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International’s CEO and Secretary General, opened the 20 PEFC General Assembly and said: “As a grassroots organization PEFC has an extremely important role to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals as we can deliver 14 of the 17 UN goals on the ground through our work with forest certification and forest-dependent communities.”
The 17 goals are part of the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015 to end poverty in order to achieve sustainable development.
“If we want to continue to grow a strong future for forests and the people that depend upon them, we must expand the reach and relevance of forest certification programs and better quantify and communicate the resulting positive conservation and community impacts,” said Kathy Abusow, Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) President and CEO.
“As to expanding the reach and relevance, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Hans Drielsma, outgoing PEFC International Board member who had the vision to secure PEFC’s entrance into Asia with the formation of PEFC Asia almost a decade ago.
“This vision has now become a reality with unprecedented growth in the Chinese market, stability in the Japanese market, and a consistent flow of new members and interest from South East Asian nations to join the PEFC family.”
Dr. Hans Drielsma, who served on the PEFC International Board of Directors from 2006-2015 for three terms of service and chaired numerous standards review committees and working groups over the years, is a professional forester with 40 years’ experience, including senior executive roles with Forestry Tasmania and State Forests NSW.
The seeds that were planted with the formation of PEFC Asia, are now bearing fruit, and there were many examples of this during 2015 PEFC Week.
Representatives from China, Vietnam, South Korea, Philippines, Nepal, Thailand and India, among many others, all spoke during 2015 PEFC Week about the strength, commitment and dedication of PEFC to sustainable forest management and responsible supply chains that consider and address economic, social and environmental values.
The China Forest Certification Council (CCFC) was recognized by PEFC International for leading the way with the most acres certified in China in the last year compared with any other PEFC member nation.
Wang Wei, Chairman of the China Forest Certification Council (CFCC), detailed the Chinese government’s announcement regarding new national Forest Certification Rules that set the requirements for all forest certifications operating in China.
Certification bodies wishing to conduct forest management (FM) and chain-of-custody (COC) audits, including CFCC, PEFC and FSC in China, will have to be authorized to conduct business in China by the Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA) of China and will have to be accredited by the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS), and CNCA’s approval must be completed before the end of 2015, otherwise the certification bodies have to quit the business until they get the approval by CNCA.
CNAS is a member of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) in China.
According to the Forest Certification Rules, forest certification bodies that have received approval by CNCA shall carry out the certification audits against China’s national standards (which were endorsed by PEFC in 2014) or China’s sector standards, and they should also revise their internal technical documents according to these rules.
In order to maintain market stability in the transition stage, FSC forest management and FSC chain of custody certificate holders shall implement the Chinese national forest management and chain of custody standards in order to keep their current FSC certificates during upcoming annual audits.
New Zealand was recognized as the latest country to achieve PEFC endorsement. With the endorsement of the New Zealand Forest Certification Scheme, the country’s forest owners can now obtain certification for their responsible management practices.
The New Zealand Standard for Sustainable Forest Management (NZS AS 4708:2014) is an adoption of the PEFC endorsed Australian Forestry Standard (AS 4708:2013) and demonstrates how regions are increasingly working together to promote consistency and collaboration in meeting shared objectives.
The week also saw new PEFC International Board members voted in, including Brian Kernohan, Director of Policy and Environmental Advocacy at Hancock Natural Resources Group, which operates in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Chile.
Other newly elected PEFC board members include Dieter Koinig-Woehl, member of the European Works Council of Stora Enso since 1999 and Michal Proschek-Hauptman, CEO of the Environmental Umbrella Organisation was re-elected to the PEFC Board.
Next year’s 2016 PEFC Week will take place in Bali, Indonesia, marking the second time PEFC Week has taken place in Asia, following a PEFC General Assembly in Malaysia in 2013.
