PEFC at the World Forestry Congress

25 April 2022 News

It has been a long wait, but one of the world’s biggest forestry events is just around the corner, the XV World Forestry Congress (WFC). Taking place in Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2 - 6 May, the theme is Building a Green, Healthy and Resilient Future.

PEFC will be in Seoul in full force! Alongside our Korean member, the Korea Forest Certification Council (KFCC), our PEFC booth will showcase PEFC certification in different sectors, including construction, furniture, paper and packaging, textiles, and rubber. Visitors will discover how PEFC certification can help their business and get inspired by some beautiful PEFC-certified products.

On the afternoon of the first day, and again with KFCC, we are hosting the KFCC-PEFC Customer relationship & Business strategy meeting side event. Our Chair Eduardo Rojas Briales and PEFC Southeast Asia Manager Richard Laity will present PEFC certification and its growth in the Asia Pacific landscape, before handing over to Soon-jin So, KFCC Secretary General, to talk about the opportunities and challenges for forest certification uptake in Korea.

The event will be followed by a panel discussion, with experts discussing how PEFC forest certification can be used as a tool to meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments. We’ll look at the benefits of sustainable forest management and chain of custody in ESG, factors making forest certification a useful tool for ESG, and how supply chain actors, scheme owners, ESG evaluators, and governments can work together to promote responsible sourcing practices through forest certification and ESG frameworks.  

A few days later, Richard will be a panellist at the Promoting Green Economy Growth in Natural Rubber Systems and Beyond side event, co-organized by IRSG, IRRDB, CIFOR, and World Agroforestry. Richard will focus on the pathways towards the transition to green economy and resilient growth, encouraging the adoption of sustainable forest management practices and the implementation of efficient traceability through the PEFC chain of custody to boost the sustainable rubber sector.

The Chair of the PEFC International Board, Eduardo Rojas Briales, is taking part in a further two events. On the Tuesday he’s a speaker during Session Six: Transforming, growing, and restoring: What support will it take? As part of Special Event ‘Sustainable Investments in Forests for People, Profit and Nature’. The next day, he speaks during Plenary Session 3: Wood the most ancient raw material taking us to the future.

Ana Belén Noriega, Secretary-General of PEFC Spain, will join the panel discussion for Session 4: Partnerships and collaboration for sustainable forest management, taking part in the Forests4Fashion Initiative panellist discussion. Forests4Fashion is a collaborative partnership initially between by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the fashion industry, created out of the need to promote sustainable forest management beyond the forestry sector.