PEFC General Assembly welcomes three new members

15 November 2023 Organization news

The 29^th PEFC General Assembly welcomed three new members into the PEFC Alliance. Precious Woods and HS Timber Group joined PEFC as new international stakeholder members, while the Croatian Union of Private Forest Owners Associations (CUPFOA) is the new PEFC national governing body for Croatia.

“The PEFC certification system will provide the base for better forest management in Croatia,” said Miljenko Županić, General Secretary of CUPFOA.

“Sustainable forest management standards will influence forest management planning, taking into account the opinion of the public and rural population, as well as endangered and protected species.”

Two international stakeholder members bring expertise and experience

HS Timber Group is a wood processing company of Austrian origin, with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. With five production sites and 2,700 employees in Austria, Germany, Romania, Finland and Argentina, HS Timber produces high-quality wood products for industrial customers around the world.

“Our self-conception as a sustainable company includes a commitment to source our raw material exclusively from sustainably managed forests. Therefore, we adhere to the highest integrity standards in our supply chain and aim to source 100% of our raw material from forests certified for sustainable forest management,” says Michael Proschek-Hauptmann from HS Timber Group.

“PEFC has always been a reliable partner in our sustainability journey, and we are very pleased to now also contribute to the development of the whole organization as an international stakeholder member.”

Precious Woods is one of the leaders in the sustainable, certified management of natural tropical forests, employing more than 1,500 people in Brazil, Gabon, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Business activities include the sustainable management of tropical forests and the production and sale of tropical timber products.

“Being certified is not only a strategy but one of the core values of our company. We want to be more than just a certificate holder but actively engage with PEFC and other companies worldwide, sharing our values,” said Markus Pfannkuch from Precious Woods.

“We believe the representation of practical experience in the tropical forest industry will benefit the industry and PEFC. It will help motivate other tropical operators to become PEFC certified and showcase the effectiveness of PEFC for the protection of tropical forests to customers.”

Precious Woods was the first PEFC-certified company in the Amazon Basin and in Africa, and played an important role in the development of our regional system for the Congo Basin, which achieved PEFC endorsement in 2021.