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Technical Documentation

Much of PEFC's spectrum of activities is based on technical documentation outlining principles, criteria, and procedures.

All of these documents have been developed in multi-stakeholder process, and we are tremendously grateful for the expertise and knowledge that external parties have contributed to this work.

PEFC's technical documentation aims to:

• define clear and unambiguous provisions
• be uniform of structure, of style and terminology to ensure homogeneity
• be consistent within the complete corpus of the PEFC Council documentation.

Our documentation structure distinguishes between standards and guides.

PEFC International standards

PEFC International standards are documents established by consensus and approved by a recognized body. They provide, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree or order in a given context.

PEFC International Standards are adopted by the General Assembly.

PEFC guides

PEFC guides are published by PEFC Council giving mandatory rules, orientation, advice, interpretation or recommendation relating to PEFC International Standards and/or other PEFC activities.

National documentation

We also make available all endorsement-related documentation by national forest certification systems. This includes national standards as well as the complete assessment report.

Revision of technical documentation

Time does not stand still. Best practices and experiences evolve, scientific and technological knowledge advances, and society's expectations change.

We need to ensure that our standards keep up with this changing world. This is why we revise our international standards every five years.

The current standards revision process is ongoing now. Check out our Standards Revision website for more information and to keep up-to-date with the process.