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| At its meeting on 26th October 2006 in Portland Oregon, the PEFC Council Board of Directors made decisions concerning the clarification of procedures in the assessment of certification systems which are reported below:
Requests for clarification of the PEFC Council requirement that "the formal approval of standards shall be based on the evidence of consensus" had been received from several actors including:
- PEFC National Governing Bodies and the stakeholders when developing standards
- Consultants / assessors when assessing schemes against the PEFC Council requirements
- External assessors such as CPET etc when considering whether PEFC is to be considered as "Legal and sustainable" in their assessment processes
The PEFC Council therefore approved the new Guideline GL5 / 2006 - Interpretation of the PEFC Council requirements for consensus in the standard setting process, which is published on this web site under www.pefc.org > Documentation > Technical Documentation, to provide this clarification to all of these actors.
The Board also resolved to make the existing optional "Panel of Experts peer review of the assessment report" (Annex 7 chapter 6.2.2) mandatory for all assessments and reassessments of certification schemes with immediate effect.
In selecting the Panel the Board resolved that it will be the case that the composition of the Panel should represent a broad range of interests including:
- Forestry
- Certification and accreditation processes
- NGOs (including social and environmental interests)
- Market access
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