PEFC UK launch new online certification tool for UK woodlands

29 June 2015 News

The new online forest certification system aims to provide a simple and cost-effective solution to assist the UK’s small and medium-sized private forest owners to become PEFC-certified. 

The new tool is designed to help increase the UK’s certified forest area and boost the supply of certified material to the UK primary processing sector and its customers.

The online tool was launched at a special Press Lunch in central London during a rare UK gathering of major figures from PEFC, including PEFC International Chairman, William Street, and CEO Ben Gunneberg, to discuss key issues surrounding the global forestry, construction, paper and packaging industries.

While PEFC forest certification has been established in the UK for five years, it has long been recognized that a cost-effective certification solution was required to enable smaller woodland owners to participate in certification. Certified materials are now increasingly requested by a growing number of forest product users including retailers, the construction sector, energy suppliers and a growing number of consumers.

More than one million hectares of UK forests have been certified to PEFC’s sustainable forest management standard since 2010. This covers all the Forestry Commission forests in England, Scotland and Wales and 500 privately owned forest estates, including a number in Northern Ireland, managed through the Scottish Woodlands and UPM Tilhill forest Group Certification schemes.

Developed in conjunction with Dutch consultant Evan Buytendijk BV, PEFC UK are confident that the online forest certification system will act as an aid to Group Certification managers, to enable these schemes to function more efficiently, reduce costs and become a user-friendly means of assessing the compatibility of existing forest management plans with those required by UKWAS, and provide more consistent audits via a series of easy to follow online checklists.

“Forestry in the UK is entering an interesting phase,” said Alun Watkins, PEFC UK. “There is an ever-growing focus on homegrown material and the future will see large amounts of UK material entering the supply chain to fuel products such as new innovative engineered material and the biomass sector. It is really important that forest owners of all sizes seek to become certified as the market is now demanding responsible sourcing as the norm."

"Our new online tool assists with reducing the cumbersome paperwork generated by the sustainable forest management process and is designed to be user-friendly and provide an easy path for those seeking to become PEFC-certified,” concluded Mr. Watkins.

This project was part funded by the PEFC Collaboration Fund. The Fund seeks to support efforts to advance sustainable forest management and forest certification around the world by members and partner organizations. Through its competitive small grants program, PEFC encourages locally relevant advancements in the sustainable management of forests. PEFC has awarded over 520,000 Swiss Francs to 24 projects through the Collaboration Fund since 2011.