Building bridges between global and local key strength of PEFC - World Forestry Congress

18 September 2015 News

"PEFC has the unique ability to facilitate the link between global aspirations for sustainable forest management and on-the-ground implementation of responsible practices", said Thorsten Arndt, Head of Communication at PEFC International, at the World Forestry Congress in Durban last week.

"While various factors have helped to increase the uptake of certification globally, the increased interest in PEFC stems from our focus of working with, and giving ownership to, local organizations and people in elaborating their vision of sustainable forestry."

Speaking at a panel discussion about 'Sustainable trade: new developments from Buenos Aires to Durban and beyond', Mr Arndt reflected on the drivers behind the growth in certified forest area globally.

"We have experienced a dramatic increase in public and private sustainable timber procurement policies and commitments since the last World Forest Congress in Buenos Aires. Coupled with a heightened consumer awareness of certification, these have been major drivers behind the growth of forest certification systems," Mr. Arndt emphasized.

"Certification labels, such as the PEFC label, are the most trusted means of giving confidence to consumers that wood-based products are sustainably sourced."

While these drivers are all of significant importance, Mr. Arndt emphasized that the immense uptake of PEFC certification in the past years is based on three intrinsically linked elements:

1. PEFC is based on, and expands upon, intergovernmental processes such as Forest Europe and ITTO, thereby benefitting from the vast knowledge of the thousands of stakeholders involved, and their democratic legitimacy and credibility.
2. PEFC is unique in developing all of its standards through multi-stakeholder dialogues, thereby facilitating the translation of the global aspirations expressed in the intergovernmental processes to the specific framework conditions at national level.
3. The commitment of stakeholders on the ground, the ownership they take for their own national forest certification system, and their motivation to demonstrate sustainable forest management through certification long-term.

"PEFC's processes bring intergovernmental processes to life through local, multi-stakeholder dialogues that are designed to adapt global requirements to the distinct local circumstances, traditions, culture, legal and regulatory frameworks, and management capacity," Mr. Arndt stressed. "Building this bridge between global and local is a key strength of PEFC and provides the missing link between global aspirations and local implementation."