With only 8% of the world's forests certified to any certification system, one of the most important challenges that global forest leaders face is expanding the globally certified forest area.
Costs of certification
With 25% percent of the world's forests owned by families and communities, the cost of certification is a major obstacle to expanding forest certification to the more than 90% of forest area currently uncertified globally.
Certification costs include both direct and indirect costs. They fall into the following categories:
- costs of preparatory activities (information, training, revision of documentation)
- costs of changes in forest management (increased number or retention trees, larger buffer zones, etc.)
- costs of internal audits and other additional controls
- costs of external audits and issuance of a certificate
PEFC has developed robust mechanisms to ensure the participation and inclusion of family and community owned forests in forest certification.
PEFC has paid special attention to their needs and their specific cost and operating structures to ensure that forest certification is accessible to all. In order to best respond to cost challenges, PEFC has developed a series of individual certification mechanisms.
Regional and Group Certification
To overcome the challenge of high certification costs incurred by individual certification, PEFC has developed and popularized the concept of Regional Certification.
Regional Certification is the certification of multiple forest holdings within set geographical boundaries. Given that fragmented forest ownership is the predominant model in many countries both in the developing and the developed world, 
Regional Certification has proven to be the most effective option for small family- and community-owned forests to obtain certification and gain access to global timber markets, especially those requiring both wood and non-wood forest products from certified sources.
Under this system, an authorized organization, representing family or community-managed/-owned forests managing the majority of the forest area of the region, can apply for PEFC certification on behalf of its members. It is responsible for implementing rules for Regional Certification, and for compliance of all participants with PEFC requirements. All participating forest owners must individually join the group.
The concept of Group Certification is closely related to Regional Certification. However, there is no geographical boundary to which the certificate applies.
Individual Certification
In Individual Certification, a forest owner applies for certification directly with the certification body for all the forest area under his ownership or management within a country.
