PEFC Southeast Asia seeks partners to develop quality infrastructure in the forestry sector

15 September 2022 Driving innovation

Forest certification is a powerful tool to combat illegal logging and to promote sustainable forest management and responsible timber trade. PEFC is calling for collaborators and donors to further develop the PEFC FOR-TRADE programme to drive ASEAN integration and development of regional value chains in forest related industries.

The PEFC FOR-TRADE programme (Forestry and Trade for Development in the ASEAN region) supports sustainable forest trade in the Lower Mekong and ASEAN region through certification programmes aimed at advancing nationally owned standards in sustainable forest management and chain of custody.

PEFC Southeast Asia has collaborated with a range of partners in the region. More recently for example, we have been a key partner in a UN-REDD Initiative funded by NORAD, implementing a series of interventions to support Sustainable Forest Trade in the Lower Mekong Region. A key activity has been empowering Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam to trade with China by enhancing their national forest certification systems. Other interventions have included:

1. Diverse certification pilot projects to showcase best practices for emerging countries to adopt.
2. Quality Infrastructure training programs within the forestry sector to develop sustainable forestry related training products/materials.
3. Intra-regional workshops to develop local and regional communities to engage and strengthen trade ties. 

PEFC’s activities will be carefully aligned with ASEAN’s goals and formally adopted “blueprints” within the forestry sector, and more broadly in terms of plans for economic integration in the region. For instance, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025 provides broad directions through strategic measures to guide the next phase of ASEAN economic integration from 2016 to 2025. Under the new Blueprint, a stronger AEC is envisaged by 2025. There is a strong consensus within ASEAN to deepen existing integration areas, and the incorporation of new focus areas such as Global Value Chains (GVCs), good regulatory practices, sustainable development, global megatrends, and emerging trade-related issues.

PEFC sees its next strategic drive as complementing and supporting these aims, with a particular focus on developing GVCs for forest smallholders, and other SMEs, harmonising and strengthening regulatory practices for sustainable forest management and promoting sustainable trade.

To achieve this vision, PEFC would like to call on strategic partners that share the same values to collaborate and expand on current existing pilot projects, as well as donors interested in funding PEFC’s initiatives. Technology and knowledge transfer can play a significant role in further closing gaps in the current ecosystem, and we would like to also encourage the start-up community to join as well.

For more information and ideas on how we can work together, please contact us here.