Certification system developers benefit from PEFC support

17 December 2013 News

“With 11 countries from three continents participating in our second PEFC system development workshop, it has been a great success, even greater than last year,” said Remi Sournia, PEFC Project Officer, on the sidelines of the 2013 PEFC Stakeholder Dialogue in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, last month.

The workshop was one of several side events convened on 15 November 2013, the last day of PEFC Forest Certification Week. It successfully brought together around 50 people including representatives from Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Congo, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, along with representatives of PEFC members from Belarus, Malaysia, and Spain and PEFC International staff.

Specifically tailored to support organizations actively pursuing certification system development, the workshop was an open discussion around a presentation covering all the main aspects of developing a national forest certification system endorsable by PEFC. Some of the key topics covered included the main elements and roles in a certification system, responsibilities for managing a national system and the development of a system with a focus on the forest management standard. The discussion format enabled practitioners to share experiences and find solutions for their individual challenges in developing certification systems.

“This discussion allowed us to appreciate all the diversity within the PEFC world through the sharing of members’ experiences and on how they dealt with some specific aspects of the development of their system,” continued Mr. Sournia. “Hopefully it has shown the participants that there is not one single way to develop a system, but many ways, one of them being the most suitable for their country and organization.”

The workshop was held in conjunction with the launch of PEFC’s new Toolkit for Developing National Certification Systems, designed to help organizations currently leading standard setting processes navigate smoothly within PEFC International requirements. Both the workshop and toolkit are part of the extended support service PEFC has been developing over the past few years.

As the interest in PEFC is growing on all continents, such a service to guide national certification system development is increasingly needed. If additional sources of funding can be secured, this workshop will be the first of many training activities in PEFC’s expanding support service.

Organizations interested in contributing to our efforts or receiving support for national certification system development are invited to contact PEFC at development@pefc.org.