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| More than 15 million hectares of forests in Norway and Sweden continue to be managed sustainably under the stringent standards of the international PEFC forest certification system. The PEFC Council today re-endorsed the certification systems in both countries, following an independent assessment of the systems by external consultants. The Norwegian ?Living Forests Standards? is re-endorsed by the PEFC council until 2008 and the ?Swedish Forest Certification Scheme? until 2011.
The Norwegian system was re-endorsed on the condition that the accreditation for the Chain of Custody wood tracking system will be based on ISO Guide 65 (Product certification) within six months following the re-endorsement. The Swedish system was re-endorsed without any further conditions. "PEFC has all its endorsed certification system reviewed every five years before re-endorsement", explained Mr Ben Gunneberg, Secretary General of the PEFC Council. "This allows all the experience gained in the field, the latest scientific research and any other elements relating to sustainability to be reviewed and integrated into the revised systems. It also ensures that new requirements added to PEFC's international documentation during that time, are fully implemented at national level."
The assessments of the two systems involved an international public consultation period, during which the general public had the opportunity to comment on the systems. The full assessment reports on which the PEFC Council members now based their decision to re-endorse the systems, are publicly available at the PEFC Council website at www.pefc.org. (Norway , Sweden)
For more information please contact:
Mr Oliver Scholz, Communications Manager PEFC Council
Tel. + 352 26 25 90 59
Mr Svein S?gnen, Secretary General PEFC Norge
Tel. +47 23 00 07 50
Mr ?ke Barklund, Secretary General Svenska PEFC ek
Tel. +46 8 59 08 46 06
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