PEFC Position Paper on Climate Change and Forest Certification

The PEFC Council has issued a position paper on the carbon issue and forest certification. The paper outlines possible links between the mitigation of global climate change and carbon emission and their interactions with forest certification activities.
PEFC believes that any credible mechanism of carbon credit trading must recognise and reward the carbon sink created by forests managed in a sustainable manner as demonstrated through their independent credible certification. To this effect PEFC calls on all key decision makers to recognise that:

• Forestry represents an important climate change mitigation potential;
• Only sustainably managed forests should qualify for carbon credits or any other payments relating to afforestation, reduction of deforestation; forest management (maintaining or increasing stand-level or landscape level carbon density) or increasing off-site carbon stocks in wood based products;
• Sustainable forest management must be demonstrated through credible certification like PEFC.