Minister highlights role of forests in mitigating climate change at PEFC General Assembly

19 November 2014 News

“We will never know if our decisions to save forests through an integrated sustainable forest management approach targeted to small family forest landowners will pass the test of time."

"But it seems clear so far that we are on the right side of history: we are based on local control, we have a system where the parties trust each other, and we follow all of the international protocols for standard setting organizations,” said William Street, Jr., Chairman of the Board of PEFC International, at the PEFC General Assembly in Paris, France, today.

In his remarks welcoming Mr. Stéphane Le Foll, Minister for Agriculture, Agrifood and Forestry, Mr. Street looked back at the successful history of PEFC, which was founded in Paris 15 years ago by small and family forest owners. He renewed the organization’s commitment to promote sustainable forest management as an important contribution to tackling societal challenges such as climate change.

PEFC certification is in expansion in every continent

"In less than two decades, a proverbial drop in the bucket of history, PEFC has gone from an organization of 11 national certification systems to 38 member countries and 22 international stakeholder members and growing,” highlighted Mr. Street. “Today, two thirds of all certified forests globally are certified to PEFC. More than half of all the world’s traded sustainable forest products are sourced from PEFC forests. This makes PEFC the world’s leading forest certification system and the world’s largest source of eco-certified forest products.”

In the past years, PEFC has experienced tremendous growth, with the endorsement of the national Chinese and Indonesian forest certification systems, as well as the re-endorsement of Gabon. The membership of Japan represents another significant milestone, and the PEFC General Assembly welcomed the interest by the delegations of Ghana, India, Macedonia, New Zealand, Peru, Suriname and Vietnam, who all participated in the event.

“By extending forest certification into developing countries of the Global South, we are helping overcome market and trade barriers that they face. Our focus on local ownership and extensive local stakeholder involvement transfers skills and education to forest owners around the world,” Mr. Street explained.

A collaborative approach to sustainable forest management

The key factor for PEFC’s success is its bottom up approach. This approach emphasizes forest dialogues at local level in order to foster collaboration on the common objective of promoting sustainable forest management, equally balancing the environmental, social and economic dimensions.

From left to right: Mr. Ben Gunneberg, Secretary General, PEFC International; M. Marc-Antoine de Sèze, President, PEFC France; M. Stéphane Le Foll, Minister for Agriculture, Agrifood and Forestry; Mr. William Street, Chairman of the Board, PEFC International.

“Our founders were committed to the idea that every forest must meet all the obligations: to provide economic advantage to the owner, social gain for the community and environmental benefit for society,” added Mr. Street.

“If we want forests to be managed in a sustainable way, all stakeholders must work together,” highlighted Marc-Antoine de Sèze, President of PEFC France. In France as in other countries, PEFC brings together not only producers but also users, including environmental NGOs such as France Nature Environnement (FNE).

Engaged in mitigating climate change

Mr. Stéphane Le Foll reiterated the importance of forests and cautioned that land-use changes outside the forest sector have a tremendous impact on the state of the world’s forests and their contribution to tackling climate change.

Not only are forests extremely beneficial for all members of our society, but they also have a critical role in mitigating climate change, as highlighted in the recent New York Declaration on Forests. In fact, through photosynthesis, forests sequester around 9.5 gigatons of CO2 per year, the equivalent of about 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions.