The PEFCC Newsletter
is produced by the PEFC Council
(Registered as an asbl in Luxembourg No. 1999-61-02192)
17 Rue des Girondins, L-1626 Hollerich, Luxembourg ¦ Tel: +352 26 25 90 59 ¦ E-Mail: pefc@pt.lu ¦ Web Page: www.pefc.org
PEFC FORGING AHEAD!
By Ben Gunneberg, Secretary General
It is now nearly three years since the PEFC Councilwas formally launched in Paris and two and a halfsince the international office opened in Luxembourg,with little else but one desk and a personal computer.But since that time our membership has grown from11 to 19 schemes, including three from NorthAmerica. Now its about to grow again withapplications for membership received from Australia,Chile and Estonia. We’re also holding meetings withrepresentatives of national schemes covering tropicalforests. All this demonstrates the global appeal thePEFC mutual recognition umbrella has attained.
PEFCC Forest Certification since June 1999(Millions of hectares)
The area of forests certified by 12 endorsed schemes(Spain being a recent addition – see article) nowexceeds 43 Million hectares and continues to growsteadily, making PEFC the world’s largest forestcertification scheme. The Council’s organisationalstructure is such as to be very cost effective(operating on under 350,000 Euros per annum). Thishelps reduces the burden on a sector, which isalready under a lot of financial pressure, and allowsthe concentration of resources on sustainable forestmanagement, available to all types and sizes offorests. Staff numbers are increasing modestly, andmany millions of cubic meters of certified materialsare now available on the market place, traceablethrough certified chain of custodies. Businesses arealso now taking up the option more to label theseproducts so the logo penetration is also increasing(see French article). The Council recently launchedan interactive database from which you can gleanmore information on management certificates, chainof custody certificates and logo usage licences thathave been issued under the PEFC Scheme. Go on – try it for yourself onwww.pefc.org The Council as an innovative and learningorganisation is undertaking a review of its processesand the critique levied against it in order tostreamline, improve and clarify its procedures anddocumentation. This is important but time consumingwork that will bear fruit at the next General Assemblyin November, which was rescheduled to allow timefor this process to be done in a thorough way (see“Member’s Workshop” article).It’s not all been rosy or even easy and for someconsiderable time PEFC came under unwarrantedand, unfounded criticism, which unfortunately stillraises its ugly head from time to time. But we’ve beenpragmatic about it and see it as part of the learningprocess, taking those elements of criticism, whichhelps us improve and ignoring the destructive,misleading and untrue. However in spite of thisdownside, the best news is that the constructive workand achievements continue to snowball at local,national and international level. This is due largely tothe enthusiastic, often Herculean, and voluntaryefforts of thenumerous grass rootsstakeholders in PEFCwho believe insustainable forestmanagement andmaking sure that ourforests are maintainedand enhanced forcurrent and futuregenerations. May thenext three years beeven more successfulthan the first three!
PEFCC
N
ewsletter
PEFC/01-00-01
No.11 - June 2002
01020304050Dec-99 Oct-00 Oct-01 Jun-02
PEFC Newsletter
- Promoting Sustainable Forest Management(
Page
2
)
For more info:www.pefc.org For full details of National Governing Bodies see website above
Spanish Scheme Endorsed
Members of the PEFC Council recently votedunanimously to endorse the Spanish ForestCertification Scheme. This scheme is the twelfthscheme to be endorsed by the PEFC Council sinceits inception. Each scheme undergoes a rigorousassessment process with public consultation on theInternet by independent consultants appointed by thePEFC Council. This process generally takesapproximately 6 months or more.
To see details of thescheme please go to our website:
http://www.pefc.org/
Danish Scheme submitted
PEFC Denmark recently submitted its application forassessment of The Danish Forest CertificationScheme to the PEFC Council. Independentconsultants will be appointed shortly to undertake theassessment and the period of public consultation willbe announced shortly after that.
The scheme is alreadyavailable for viewing on our website:
http://www.pefc.org/
click on the Danish flag todownload details of the scheme.
Hectares Certified
Schemes Endorsed by PEFCC
(millions)
Austrian Forest Certification Scheme 3.924 000Belgian Forest Certification SchemeCzech Forest Certification SchemeFinnish Forest Certification Scheme 21.910 000French Forest Certification Scheme 200 000German Forest Certification Scheme 5.584 592Latvian Forest Certification Scheme 7 000Norwegian LFS Certification Scheme 9.352 000Spanish Forest Certification SchemeSwedish Forest Certification Scheme 2.052 115Swiss Q Label Holz Scheme 57 190UK Certification Scheme for SFM
TOTAL 43.086.897
For more details on Forest, Chain of Custody Certificatesand Logo usage licences etc., see our interactive databaseavailable on our website:
www.pefc.org
Applications for Membership
Three new applications for membership have beenreceived by the PEFC Council, from Australia, SouthAmerica and Eastern Europe. The Board ofDirectors has decided to recommend approval forapplications of schemes and scheme representativesfrom Australia, Chile and Estonia to becomemembers at the next General Assembly of the PEFCCouncil in November:Australia Chile EstoniaIf approved, they will join the other 18 members ofthe PEFC Council:
Austria
(PEFC Austria),
Belgium
(Woodnet asbl),
Canada
(Canadian Standards Association),
CzechRepublic
(PEFC Czech Republic),
Denmark
(PEFCDenmark),
Finland
(Finnish Forest CertificationCouncil),
France
(PEFC France),
Germany
(PEFCGermany e.V.),
Ireland
(PEFC Ireland),
Italy
(PEFCItalia),
Latvia
(PEFC Latvia),
Norway
(PEFCNorway),
Portugal
(Conselho da Fileira FlorestalPortugesa),
Spain
(PEFC España),
Sweden
(Svenska PEFC ek för),
Switzerland
(HWK-Zertif-zierungsstelle),
UK
(PEFC UK Ltd),
USA
(includingSFI & American Tree Farm System).
Extraordinary Membership
In addition to the above three applications, anapplication for ExtraordinaryMembership has been receivedfrom the European Network ofForest Entrepreneurs (ENFE)and the members will alsoconsider this application at thenext General Assembly.Current Extraordinary Members are:
CEI-Bois
(Eurn. Cenfedn. of Woodworking Industry),
CEPF
(Confédération des Propriétaires Forestiers),
CEPI
(Confederation of European Paper Industries)
ELO
(European Landowners' Organisation),
FEBO
(European Timber Trade Association),
FECOF
(Fédn Européen Communales Forestiers),
UEF
(Union of European Foresters),
USSE
(Union of Silviculturalists of Southern Europe).
PEFC Newsletter
- Promoting Sustainable Forest Management(
Page
3
)
For more info:www.pefc.org For full details of National Governing Bodies see website above
Members Workshop
Representatives of 17 national forest certificationschemes which are members of the PEFC Councilmet in Luxembourgon 31 May for aworkshop to facilitatediscussion andconsideration of thedetails of preliminaryproposals forchanges to the PEFCScheme, including its procedures anddocumentation. The proposed changes are a resultof practical experience at national and internationallevel in addition to a review commissioned by theBoard (see last newsletter). Many ideas and viewswhere exchanged and these will now be developedfurther by the Board. The final proposals will bepresented to the General Assembly in November.
PEFC GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The next General Assembly of thePEFC Council will be held in Luxembourg on22 NOVEMBER 2002.
Reports From The PEFC National Governing Bodies
In the following section, each of the PEFCmembers has the opportunity to present a briefreport on the current state of play in theircountry. The views expressed here are the viewsof the members and do not necessarily reflect theviews of the PEFC Council
PEFC SWEDEN produces Newspaper
Great success for PEFC Sweden newspaper.
A total of 260.000 copies of the PEFC SwedenNewspaper were printed, of which 215.000 copieswere distributed as an insert in one of the largestmorning papers in Sweden.Professional journalists wrote all the articles and thecontent of the PEFC Sweden newspaper was basedon interviews and facts. The main theme of thearticles was sustainable forest management. Themain target group was decision-makers within thebusiness world, public administration, and also toopinion-leaders.The remaining, 45.000newspapers weredistributed to forestowners, wood industriesand organizations. Morethen a half million peoplehave had access to thenewspaper about theSwedish PEFC.
Swedish PEFC annual meeting
The annual meeting was held the 25
th
of April inUmea north of Sweden at the University ofAgriculture. After the annual meeting PEFC alsoheld a seminar about how to promote sustainableforest management in the northern part of Sweden.Beside the Chairman, Sven Lundell, there were anumber of other interesting speakers.
For further details contact:
Folke Stenstrom:
Email: folke.stenstrom@mellanskog.se
The PEFC National Governing Body inUSA, covers two national schemes –the Sustainable Forestry Initiative(SFI) and the American Tree FarmSystem (ATFS).
Sustainable Forestry Initiative
®
The SFI program continues remarkablegrowth
…the SFI
SM
program has continued itsremarkable growth and the program nowencompasses over 43.3 million hectares in theUnited States and Canada. To date the total areathird-party certified under the SFI program stands at24.3 million hectares and is growing. Currentcommitments indicate that an additional 11 millionhectares will be certified to the SFI Standard by theend of 2002, making the SFI program the largestsustainable forestry and certification programs inNorth America.
Independent, credible standard
…A keycommitment set forth by the SFI program is theactive involvement of third-party stakeholdersthrough the Sustainable Forestry Board (SFB) andthe External Review Panel (ERP)
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
