PEFC’s Director General Ben Gunneberg was spreading his message to Paperworld visitors in Frankfurt saying, “Currently PEFC remains the certification system of choice for forest owners globally. An additional 16 million hectares of forest area were certified to PEFC since November 2008, which represents a growth of seven percent.”
The demand for chain-of-custody (CoC) certification also continued to gain momentum in 2009 with responsible companies seeking to procure wood-based products from sustainably managed forests. Last year PEFC CoC certificates recorded an increase of 36 percent. With more than 1,500 certificates being awarded, there are now more than 5,700.
In addition, five countries were either endorsed or re-endorsed in 2009. These included Australia, China, Gabon, Malaysia and Russia. And Gunneberg is confident more will follow soon.
New standards and guidelines have also been introduced, with a revision of the International Chain-of-Custody standard, which started in spring 2008, due for final approval later this year.
A joint PEFC – International Accreditation Forum (IAF) document for certification bodies that conduct CoC audits has now moved into its final stage for formal approval by the IAF.
