The logo indicates that the products contains at least 70% certified material

Only products which contain at least 70% PEFC certified material can be labelled with the PEFC logo. This is the highest minimum level set by any international forest certification system for the use of its label.

Recycled material is included in PEFC certification

PEFC enables and encourages the use of recycled material in products. A combined label containing the PEFC logo and the Mobius Loop can be used by manufacturers on products which contain a minimum total content of certified and recycled material of 70%. The percentage of the proportion of the recycled material is stated inside the Mobius Loop.

Only timber and paper products from PEFC endorsed systems can be traded and labelled with the PEFC logo

Only national forest certification systems, which have successfully gone through the stringent PEFC endorsement process, can use the PEFC logo on and for their certified products.

PEFC assures that the uncertified content in PEFC certified products does not originate from illegal logging (controversial sources)

To help prevent wood from controversial sources and illegal logging finding its way into timber and paper products, PEFC has put in place a number of safeguards for the 'Avoidance of (wood from) Controversial Sources'.

PEFC certified companies who, in addition to certified material, also procure non-PEFC certified wood, have the obligation to put in place safety checks such as risk analyses, external assessments and on-site inspections, to ensure the legality of the uncertified wood. The scope and the intensity of the checks depend on the risk of procuring timber from illegal harvesting. Certified material from other certification systems, such as FSC, is considered as not requiring further checks.

Whenever companies and consumers buy PEFC certified paper and timber products, they have the assurance that the purchased product does not contain illegally logged wood. Both the certified and the uncertified content have been checked by certifiers and suppliers before them.

PEFC's safeguards have been in place since October 2004 and in October 2006 were further supplemented by a guidance for the Avoidance of Controversial Sources. The mandatory guidance is part of PEFC's Chain of Custody wood tracking system and available at www.pefc.org > Documentation > Technical Documentation > Annex 4 > Appendix 7

PEFC certification is based on several hundred very detailed criteria

PEFC uses at its basis the 8 intergovernmental processes for sustainable forest management which grew out of the United Nations 'Earth Summit' in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 as the foundation for its national standards. These processes are supported by 149 governments in the world covering 85% of the world's forest area. The sustainability criteria of the processes are specified for example by operational level guidelines such as the PEOLG that are mandatory for all certification systems endorsed by PEFC.

Together with international conventions on social and ecological issues, such as the International Labour Organization Core Conventions (e.g. against child and forced labour and for equal remuneration), ISO Guidelines, the Convention on Biological Diversity and other international treaties, there are up to 305 criteria, on which PEFC is based and which are used to measure the quality and credibility of national forest certification system during the PEFC endorsement process.

The ministerial PEOLG criteria PEFC uses, are mandatory

"The term 'shall' is used throughout the PEFC Council documentation to indicate those provisions that are mandatory." (Technical Document, chapter 2). This also applies for cases such as the PEOLG, where the original governmental text only uses the term 'should' instead.

"The current Pan-European Operational Level Guidelines will form the reference basis when national or sub-national certification criteria are elaborated or revised. The forest certification criteria shall be compatible with the PEOLG. In case any of the guidelines of PEOLG are not relevant in national or sub-national conditions, detailed justifications for possible incompatibilities shall be presented in the scheme application." (Technical Document, chapter 4.2)

"The Pan European Operational Level Guidelines form the reference basis when national and regional certification criteria are elaborated, amended or revised and assessed. The national certification criteria shall be compatible with the current PEOLG and any deviations, e.g., based on the non-adherence of an issue or its inclusion in normative regulation shall be justified." (Annex 3, chapter 3.1.2)

PEFC verifies that its certification is applied at the same high level in all countries with PEFC endorsed certification systems

PEFC Council undertakes an open, transparent and independent benchmark endorsement process for national forest certification systems, which is unmatched by any other forest certification system globally. It ensures that a consistently high and stringent quality and performance level is applied by all PEFC endorsed certification systems globally (see www.pefc.org > Activities > Scheme development and Recognition).

Before PEFC endorsement, independent external assessors check an applicant forest certification system against a benchmark of up to 305 requirements, a set of minimum standards that national systems need to fulfil for endorsement. The steps of this process are laid down in the PEFC Council Annex 7 Endorsement and Mutual Recognition of National Schemes and their Revision and in the PEFC Guideline GL 2/2005 PEFC Council Minimum Requirements Checklist, which together with all PEFC documentation are publicly available at www.pefc.org.

In order to guarantee equally high PEFC standards globally the external assessors' reports (PEFC Annex 7 chapter 6.4.3) for (re-)endorsement undergo a peer review by a 'Panel of Experts'. The members of the Panel act as a quality assurance team and provide advice to the PEFC Council Board of Directors. CVs of the Panel members are available at www.pefc.org > About PEFC > Who's who > Panel of Experts.

PEFC does not permit certification against Interim Standards. These are locally limited standards, which are developed by the certifier himself for a client on an ad-hoc basis and consultations are only undertaken during a relatively short time span with selected stakeholders. PEFC is committed to the belief that Interim Standards are potentially damaging to the credibility of the forest certification process and cannot replace full and inclusive certification procedures.

PEFC certified forests and certified companies are inspected annually

The independent certifiers for PEFC certifications undertake yearly surveillance audits and a full re-assessment of the certificate holders is carried out every five years (PEFC Annex 6, chapter 4 Certification Procedures).

Certifiers in PEFC are independently checked for their qualifications and independence

All certifiers who certify against PEFC standards need to be accredited by official accreditation bodies, which are usually governmental institutions. The Accreditation Bodies verify that the certifiers are qualified to perform the required tasks. The Accreditation Bodies are members of the International Accreditation Forum IAF, a global benchmark framework that assures an equally high level of requirements globally.

PEFC certification audit reports are publicly available

A summary of the certification report, including a summary of the findings on the auditee's conformity with the forest management standard is made available to the public by the auditee (PEFC Annex 6, chapter 4 Certification Procedures).

PEFC?s requirements and documents are publicly available

All documentation of PEFC endorsed certification systems and for the PEFC Council is available at the PEFC Council website www.pefc.org:

• PEFC Council Documentation (PEFC Council's documents)
• PEFC Members & Schemes (Documents of endorsed certification systems)

The PEFC?s endorsement process (in brief)

The process to PEFC endorsement includes the following steps:
1. A national forest certification standard / system is developed by affected and interested society groups in a country.
2. The certification systems is submitted to the PEFC Council (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes) to undergo the assessment process prior to PEFC endorsement.
3. An independent assessor is appointed to analyze the applicant system against the PEFC benchmark requirements.
4. An international 60-days public consultation takes place, to collect comments from interested groups and the general public.
5. The independent assessor compiles a report, based on its findings and comments from public consultation.
6. The assessor's report is peer reviewed by a Panel of Experts, who check the quality and the robustness of the report and make recommendations to the PEFC Council Board of Directors.
7. The PEFC Council Board of Directors decides on the conformity of the system and if the decision is positive recommends its endorsement to the General Assembly.
8. The PEFC Council members vote on whether or not to endorse the applicant certification system.
9. The decision is announced and the assessor's full report is published on the PEFC website www.pefc.org.
10. Only after endorsement a national certification system is recognized by PEFC and can its timber products be traded as PEFC certified or the PEFC logo be used on them.
For further details see chart at www.pefc.org > Activities > Scheme development and recognition and the PEFC Annex 7 at www.pefc.org > Documentation > Technical Documentation.