Whilst forest certification in the 1990s originally set out to improve forest management in tropical countries, twenty years later only one percent of the global supply of wood from certified forests originates from the tropics.
The PEFC Stakeholder Dialogue (10 November 2010, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) will elaborate on the challenges and opportunities of expanding forest certification in the tropics, especially for locally controlled forests. REGISTER NOW!
“Certification in the tropics is largely utilized by large scale commercial operations, often run by international, foreign-owned companies, with few forests under local control - managed or owned directly by families, communities or indigenous peoples - having achieved certification”, explains Caroline Stein, Acting Head of Development at PEFC International.
“Yet certification is not only an important tool to verify sustainable forest management practices, but also a pre-requisite of doing business with a wide range of private and public sector organizations requiring certification as evidence of sustainability within their respective timber procurement policies. Local forest owners that are unable to obtain certification are essentially excluded from markets requiring such evidence which in many cases has direct economic and social impacts on the people that depend on these forests for their livelihoods.”
Promoting certification of locally controlled forests especially in the tropics is one of the key activities of PEFC internationally. “Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on our planet. They are considered to be critical in tackling climate change, while at the same time contributing to the livelihoods of millions of forest dependent people”, emphasizes Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International General Secretary.
“With 25% of tropical forests under local control, there is a clear need for forest certification systems to increase their relevance to small scale forest operations to ensure that all responsible forest managers and operators, large and small, can benefit from certification.”
The PEFC Stakeholder Dialogue will look into the complex challenges facing certification in the tropics, including issues such as
- socio-political factors limiting the desirability of long-term investment
- unresolved land tenure issues
- lack of consistent market incentives to compensate for additional costs
- lack of relevant national certification standards, and
- the cost barrier of certification itself, especially for small forest owners and communities.
Participants will discuss in how far changing framework conditions can assist in overcoming these challenges and serve as important drivers to advancing certification. Such framework conditions include:
- Public and private procurement policies demanding legal and sustainable timber
- Governments developing timber assurance systems
- REDD, Carbon trading and Payments for Ecosystem Services offering increased opportunities to value and market forest products from well managed forests
- Strategic partnerships between different actors show first successes.
PEFC Workshops (Thursday, 11th November 2010)
Participants are also invited to attend the PEFC Workshops on Thursday morning.
GMOs
The revised PEFC forest management standard, to be presented for approval by the PEFC General Assembly on 12th November 2010, bans the use of GMOs in forest management.
Research suggest that GMOs offer economic and technical benefits especially in plantation forestry, while there are at the same time concerns about potential negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. With various stakeholders suggesting a more flexible approach towards GMOs, PEFC continues to monitor ongoing research, scientific findings and societal expectations. Like all PEFC criteria, the current PEFC position on GMOs may be changed by due process and will be re-considered during the next revision cycle in 2015.
New Approaches to Certification
The Stakeholder Dialogue on the previous day tackles challenges and opportunities that forest certification faces in the tropics.
PEFC as the world’s largest forest certification system is committed to increase access to PEFC certification in tropical forests, especially for its core constituency, small-, family- ,and community forest owners.Given the outcome of the discussions of the previous day, this workshop discusses the way forward for PEFC to overcome existing barriers and take advantage of emerging opportunities.
Further Information
Download:
Agenda.pdf (
464.78 kB)