PEFC International awards national members as certified forest area rises

26 November 2014 News

Sustainable Forestry Initiative was one of 38 PEFC National Governing Bodies representing forest certification standards from around the globe at the PEFC General Assembly last week in Paris, France. 

With an additional eight million hectares certified this year, there are now well over 100 million hectares of SFI-certified forest in the USA and Canada.

Other PEFC members recognized for the greatest growth in certified forest area were PEFC Russia and the Belarusian Association of Forest Certification, each increasing their area of certified forest by over two million hectares.

“It is extremely heartening to see all our PEFC members continuing to contribute to the growth of certified forest area and chain of custody,” said Ben Gunneberg, Secretary General of PEFC International, following the certificate giving ceremony at the PEFC General Assembly. “Thanks to their hard work, there are now over 260 million hectares of PEFC-certified forests around the world.”

PEFC Germany left Paris with the award for the greatest growth in PEFC Chain of Custody certificates, with 98 new certificates awarded to German companies in the last year, followed by PEFC Italy with 67 new certificates.

PEFC Poland was awarded third place, after an impressive increase of almost 60% new Chain of Custody certificates: from 75 last year compared to 119 in 2014.

See all the photos from PEFC's 19th General Assembly, including all the certificates, on our Flickr page!