Created in Europe at the end of the 1990S, PEFC promotes itself today as the largest certification system for good forest management in the world in terms of surface area.
PEFC, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes, previously the Pan European Forest Certificate, is an independent not-for-profit NGO, founded in 1999. It was initially launched in 12 European countries (including Belgium) that were anxious to set up a certification system that would take into account the special features of small forests, characteristic for European ecosystems. PEFC’s objective is the promotion of management which respects the environment, but which is also socially beneficial and economically viable.
Its certification is based on recognition by PEFC International of each national certification system (as forests differ from one country to another!). These 76 criteria are based on decisions made at major international conferences on the environment, such as in Helsinki in 1993. With 245 million hectares of woodland certified throughout the world, PEFC has today gone significantly beyond the boundaries of the European Union, and is particularly well established in North and Central America.
Based on voluntary membership, PEFC certification does not give guarantees on the quality of the wood purchased, but rather on the sustainable forestry methods that have produced it. Alongside certification of the forest itself, PEFC provides certification for the “Control Chain”, issued to businesses active in the processing chain. If only one of these businesses does not have a certificate (or it has been withdrawn at the end of an annual inspection carried out by an independent organisation) the final product cannot bear the PEFC logo. In Belgium, 287,000 hectares of forest (exclusively in the Walloon region) are PEFC certified.
No comments:
Post a Comment