Future is looking bright for PEFC's global reach

27 January 2016 News

PEFC Forest Certification Week not only provides an opportunity for PEFC members from around the world to gather together, but also welcomes representatives from countries actively developing national forest certification systems. This year, we welcomed representatives from Ghana, Guatemala, Nepal, Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam and to our 2015 PEFC Week.

“PEFC is the best way to enable the one million small-forest owners in Viet Nam to access certification,” said Bach Le Van, from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development MARD.

David Everard, from SAPPI South Africa, echoed this, highlighting how “PEFC offers an important solution to South African smallholders.”

Other countries, including South Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam, all took the opportunity to express their desire to become part of the PEFC alliance, “We are ready to join PEFC,” said Seoggu Son, from the Korea Forestry Promotion Institute.

“PEFC is a window of opportunity for Guatemala to develop a national forest certification system,” said Alvaro Samayoa, from INAB – National Institute of Forests. Joseph W. Osei from the Ghana Working Group on Forest Certification also confirmed his country’s progress to establish a PEFC endorsed national forests certification system.

We also welcomed the three new members to the PEFC alliance in 2015.

“PEFC offers us the opportunity to have a standard more relevant for India,” said Sachin Raj from Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF), our new national member for India.

“PEFC – the certification and the community – will play a key role in our continuing journey not just in terms of validating our approach but in providing guidance, shared knowledge, best practices, and new sustainability standards that we can adopt to respond to an ever evolving natural and socio-political environment,” said Lucita Jasmin, from APRIL Group, which joined as an International Stakeholder member at the beginning of December.

Andrew McEwen from the New Zealand Forest Certification Association (NZFCA), a new member and recently endorsed system from New Zealand, highlighted "the strength of collaboration in PEFC will be a major enabler for forest certification in New Zealand."