The total area of PEFC certified forests exceeds 126 million hectares
08/11/2005 - 10:27
During this year's General Assembly, held in Brussels on the 28th October 2005, PEFC Council Chairman, Henri Plauche-Gillon, announced that "the amount of forest hectarage under PEFC approved Systems has
risen from 52 million hectares last year to more than 126 million this year."
Currently, PEFC Council has 31 member countries on six continents.
PEFC membership
In January, PAFC Gabon and the Institute for Forest Certification representing Slovenia joined PEFC. The Belarusian Association of
Forest Certification BAFCS has applied for PEFC membership and its application was unanimously approved by the General Assembly. MECSEA, the Association of Manufacturers of Educational and Commercial Stationery in Europe has applied for Extraordinary Membership.
Systems endorsed
The revised Finnish Forest Certification System was
endorsed. Portugal, Canada, Luxembourg, the Slovak Republic and Brazil gained endorsement for their national forest certification
systems. The total amount of hectares certified under PEFC approved systems has more than doubled in the past year and the endorsed 21 systems now account for more than 126 million hectares worldwide.
Systems submitted
The revised Austrian German, Swedish and Norwegian certification
systems have been submitted to the PEFC Council for a second 5-year
endorsement period. The Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish and US American SFI forest certification systems have been submitted for first time
endorsement and are currently being assessed by independent consultants.
PEFC further develops its requirements
The PEFC member countries approved several changes to the PEFC Council Technical Document relating to public consultation during
certification audits, making publicly available the summary of individual audit results, clarification of re-endorsement procedures as well as some editorial changes. An new certifying and labelling option for recycled material in the PEFC Chain of Custody system was approved. For the assessement of national standards seeking PEFC endorsement a new Minimum Requirements Checklist was developed, which is publicly available at the PEFC Council website.
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