PEFC Newsletter 15 May 2003

8/9/2019 PEFC Newsletter 15 May 2003

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The PEFCC Newsletter is produced by the PEFC Council (Registered as an asbl in Luxembourg No. 1999-61-02192)

17 Rue des Girondins, L-1626 Hollerich, Luxembourg ¦ Tel: +352 26 25 90 59 ¦ E-Mail: [email protected] ¦ Web Page: www.pefc.org

International Conference on

Criteria and Indicators (CiCi)

Delegates attending the CiCi conference

The report of the InternationalConference on Criteria andIndicators held in Guatemalain February (see issue 14) is now available on

http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/005/Y8694E/y8694e00.htm#TopOfPage

Among the conclusions and recommendations itis interesting to note that certification has beenacknowledged as one of the many applications ofthe criteria and indicator processes. Conclusion 1states “Criteria and indicators have many

applications. They serve as a framework for

setting goals, monitoring sustainable forest

management and national forest programmes,

certification, assisting strategic planning and

communicating on progress made to policymakers and the public, among other uses.

Criteria and indicators also help build bridges

between stakeholders” In addition

conclusion 21 states “Criteria and indicators provide a framework for many

current certification schemes. Certificationcan also serve in some cases as a tool

supporting development and

implementation of criteria and indicators.”

EditorialInternational meetings and Dialogue

By Ben Gunneberg, Secretary GeneralAlong with the expansion of PEFC membership toinclude applicant schemes for mutual recognitionoutwith Europe, comes that requests for morePEFC presentations and attendance at

conferences and workshops. Presentations onPEFC have been made in Libreville, Gabon, therecent ITTO marketing meeting in Panama andalso at a Certification Coalition meeting inMontreal, Canada. PEFC has also had a presenceat the International Criteria and Indicators (CICI,see separate article) conference in Guatemala, theFAO Committee on Forestry (COFO) in Rome andthe UNFF meeting in Geneva as well as the 4

th

Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forestsin Europe (MCPFE), Vienna. PEFC was alsopresented in Eastern Europe at the UNECE/FAO

organized meeting on “Strategies for the Sounduse of Wood” in Romania and also at theSt.Petersburg Forest Academy in Russia. Inaddition at the recent National Secretaries trainingdays (see separate item) in Germany, schemerepresentatives from the USA and Australia wherepresent. The Chairman and Secretary Generalintend to visit Chile and Brazil in the early autumnthis year to meet with national forest certificationscheme representatives and stakeholders.

International dialogue continues and the PEFCCouncil representatives have met with

representatives of World Business Council forSustainable Development (WBCSD), to discussthe Forests Dialogue’s efforts to facilitate

discussion betweendifferent forestcertificationschemes. TheForest Dialogue wasconvened in 1999 byWBCSD, the World

No.15 – May 2003

TM

PEFC/01-00-01

Promoting Sustainable Forest Management

More PEFC labelled products increasingly

available for more info see National Reports



PEFC Newsletter - Promoting Sustainable Forest Management For more info: www.pefc.org ( Page 2)

For full details of National Governing Bodies see website above

Resources Institute (WRI) and WWF, involving awide range of stakeholders from both developedand developing countries – forestrepresentatives, labour, academics, the WorldBank, and NGOs with the secretariat being runby the Yale University's Global Institute ofSustainable Forestry. It covers a whole range ofissues such as certification; illegal logging andcorruption; intensification of forest managementand a vision for the future of the Globe’s forests.TFD has launched a dialogue between thedifferent forest certification systems with the firstmeeting having taken place between a widerange of stakeholders in Geneva in October lastyear (see http://research.yale.edu/gisf/tfd/ ) . Asecond TFD organised and mediated meeting,took place between the CEOs of six of the mainforest certification schemes, with the goal of

helping to foster and support leadership withinthe forest certification movement through buildingrelationships based on trust and seeking areas ofcommonality, collaboration and sharedlearning. Ben Gunneberg was present for thePEFC Council and found the meeting to be veryconstructive and positive. A similar meeting hasbeen organised by the FAO near Rome in Juneand 12 representatives of schemes andintergovernmental organisations will participate.The PEFCC welcomes all constructive efforts tobuild a better understanding of the different forest

certification schemes and hopes that throughthese the benefits provided by the forestcertification movement will be better understoodand appreciated by the various stakeholders andthus assist in the further promotion of thecertification of sustainable forest management.

PEFC National Secretaries

MeetingNational Secretaries from 15 member nationalforest certification schemes and PEFC Council

secretariat staff met for two days at the Eberbachmonastery in the Rhineland on 5-6

thMay 2003.

Participants used this annual event to exchangeideas, share views and experiences on currentissues encountered in different countries andexplored their relation with the PEFC Council’sinternational experiences. Technical, political,communications, administrative and strategicissues were covered. Participants wereintroduced to the new revised and improvedPEFC registration system; examined revisedchain of custody requirements and discussed

PEFC logo usage issues. Not to beunderestimated was the informal opportunity forsecretaries from different regions of the world toshare views, successes and difficulties on a oneto one basis for which the quiet retreat in theformer monastery provided an ideal backdrop.

PEFC Germany, who kindly hosted the event,also arranged a roundtable discussion onincreasing the acceptance of PEFC in theGerman market place with Germanretailer/publisher environmental representatives

from OBI, Otto-Versand and Axel-SpringerVerlag as well as the former chairman of theEconomic Chamber of FSC Germany.

A full list of the national secretaries and their contact

details is available on the PEFC website.

(left to right) Jaroslav Tymràk (PEFCC), Dietmar Hagaeur (Austria), Bertrand Auquière (Belgium), AntonioBrunori (Italy), Paula Salazar (Portugal), Auvo Kaivola (Finland), Elizabeth Gill (Norway), Tanja Olsen

(Denmark), Luis Rocharte (Portugal), Stéphane Marchési (France), Aiste Ulozaite (Lithuania), Ben Gunneberg(PEFCC Secretary General), Folke Stenstrom (Sweden), Dirk Teegelbekkers (Germany), Mike Virga (USA),

Hannu Valtanen (PEFCC Vice Chairman), Pavel Hes (Czech Rep).





Nominations for PEFC

Council Board ElectionsApplications are now invited for nominations forthe position of Chairman, the two Vice Chairman

and 10 Board members to be elected at the nextGeneral Assembly in Luxembourg 31st October2003. The revised statutes, adopted at theGeneral Assembly last November, require thatthe Board should reflect the major interestedparties who support the PEFC, the geographicaldistribution of the members, the diversity of theirannual cutting categories and an appropriategender balance. Board members are appointedfor a three-year period and one third of the Boardwill be eligible for re-election in any one year. Ifyou are interested, please contact your nationalPEFC Governing Body for further details.

Employment OpportunityProfessionally qualified and experiencedCommunications Expert sought for positionbased at the PEFC Council’s International Officein Luxembourg. The ideal candidate will have aproven track record of developing, andsuccessfully implementing communicationstrategies in a rapidly changing environment fororganisations working internationally. He/she willbe highly motivated, innovative and creative with

a passion for promoting sustainable forestmanagement through forest certification.A salary commensurate with experience isoffered, and the appointment will be for an initialtwo- year period with scope for extension.

Applications should be sent to Mr BenGunneberg, at the PEFC Council Secretariat by9th June 2003. A more detailed job descriptioncan be obtained from [email protected]

Some of the participants at the MinisterialConference on the Protection of Forests.

4th MINISTERIAL CONFERENCEON THEPROTECTION OF FORESTS IN EUROPE

28-30 April 2003, Vienna, Austria

Ministers responsible for forests from 41European countries and a representative of theEuropean Community as well as representativesof 4 non-European countries and 24 internationalorganisations gathered at the MCPFE in Viennato discuss the future of the protection andsustainable management of forests in Europe.PEFCC representatives were also present.

Above: The Chairman and Secretary GeneralAttending the Ministerial Conference on the

Protection of Forests in Europe Me eting held in

Vienna on 28-29 April 2003.

As a successful outcome of the Conference, thecountries and the European Community signedthe Vienna Declaration "European Forests – Common Benefits, Shared Responsibilities" andadopted five resolutions tackling cross-sectoralco-operation and national forest programmes,economic viability of sustainable forestmanagement, social and cultural aspects, forestbiological diversity as well as forests and climatechange.

Readers will recall that the PEFC Council isbased, amongst other things, on the outputs ofthe ongoing MCPFE and is therefore studying thepractical implications of the latest documentationto help bring the PEFC documentation into linewith them for future assessments of nationalforest certification schemes.

All documents relating to MCPFE can bedownloaded from the MCPFE official websitewww.mcpfe.org.





PEFC featured in Canada and

PanamaCanadian Paper WeekDuring the Canadian Paper Week 2003 (January

26) in Montreal the PEFC was introduced to theparticipants of the “Canadian SustainableForestry Certification Coalition Meeting”. Onbehalf of the PEFC Council the SecretaryGeneral of the Finnish Forest CertificationCouncil Mr. Auvo Kaivola gave a presentation onthe “International Perspectives of the PEFCSystem”. Among interesting presentations of themeeting, was the CSA’s Revised SFM Standardintroduced by Mr. Peter Johnson.

International Tropical Timber Organisation

Left: Auvo Kaivolagiving a presentationat the ITTO meeting

The PEFC Councilparticipated in the 34th

session of the International Tropical TimberCouncil (ITTC) as "observer" in Panama City 12-17 May 2003. During ITTO (International

Tropical Timber Organisation) MarketDiscussions Mr Kaivola introduced to the ITTOmembers the PEFC Council’s InternationalPerspectives on Forest Certification. Previouslythe PEFC representatives (PEFC ChairmanHenri Plauche Gillon and PEFC Vice ChairmanDr Christian Brawenz) have participated in otherITTO meetings in Malaysia and in Gabon.

Certification & World Forestry Conference,

QuebecDr Christian Brawenz, Vice-Chairman of PEFCCouncil, will be a speaker at the “Certification &World Forestry” conference on September 25

thin

Quebec City, Canada, held on the occasion ofthe World Forestry Congress. The conferencebuilds on a tradition of prominent strategic

conferences organized by the publisher of theinternational newsletter Forest CertificationWatch. It will feature other speakers from ITTO,SmartWood and several other organizationsinvolved in sustainable forest management andcertification throughout the world. For furtherinformation on the conference, visitwww.CertificationWatchConference.org

Revised PEFCC GuidelinesApprovedReaders will recall that the PEFC Council hascompletely reviewed and revised itsdocumentation, which was approved at theGeneral Assembly last November. Part of thereview covered a new structure for the

documentation. Guidelines create a part of thePEFC Council Technical Documentation and givedetails on implementation of normative issuespresented in the respective Annexes. The PEFCCouncil Board of Directors has recently approvedthe following Guidelines, which can bedownloaded from the PEFC Council websitewww.pefc.org

GL 1/2003 Issuance of PEFC Logo UsageLicense by the PEFC Council. This covers theconditions under which licenses can be issued

and the contracts which need to be entered into.

GL 2/2003 PEFC Council Minimum

Requirements Checklist. This checklist has beenfully revised and contains the 195 requirementsapplicant schemes must address whenundergoing the PEFC Council’s endorsementand mutual recognition procedures.

Certified HectaresThe table overleaf shows a

summary of the hectarescertified and the number ofchain of custody certificates ascontained in the PEFCstatistics (30 April 2003) whichare updated monthly on thePEFC Website: www.pefc.org





Schemes Endorsed Hectares CoC

by PEFCC Certified Cert.

No.

Austrian Forest Cert. Scheme 3.924 000 184

Belgian Forest Cert. Scheme 2Czech Forest Cert. Scheme 1.870 432 5

Danish Forest Cert. Scheme

Finnish Forest Cert. Scheme 21.910 000 66

French Forest Cert. Scheme 1.410 158 81

German Forest Cert. Scheme 6.425 314 225

Latvian Forest Cert. Scheme 17 081 8

Norwegian LFS Cert. Scheme 9.352 000 3

Spanish Forest Cert. Scheme 86 679

Swedish Forest Cert. Scheme 2.276 444 31

Swiss Q Label Holz Scheme 64 572

UK Cert. Scheme for SFM 9 125 1

TOTAL 47.345 806 606

PEFC General Assembly

The next General Assembly of thePEFC Council will be held in Luxembourg on

Friday, 31 October 2003. Further details will besent to members in due course.

At the next General Assembly, the Board will

propose that the 2004 General Assemblybe held in Chile.

Reports From The PEFC

National Governing Bodies

In the following section, each of the PEFCmembers has the opportunity to present a brief

report on the current state of play in their country.The views expressed here are the views of the

members and do not necessarily reflect the viewsof the PEFC Council

NORWAY - Living Forestsrevision process startedThe 27 March 1998, the LivingForests (LF) project successfully

completed a consensus among all interest

groups on 23 performance level standards forsustainable forest management in Norway – theLiving Forests Standards (LFS). The standardsform the basis of the Norwegian PEFC-approvedforest certification scheme. It was recommendedby the LF Certification Committee that theyshould be revised every 5 years.The organizations taking part in the developmentand consensus on the LFS five years ago met inFebruary to discuss if and how a revision processshould be carried out. The organizationsexpressed that they were inclined towards the

following up of the recommendation from the LFCertification Committee and to contributeconstructively to a revision.At the meeting it was decided to set up a smallworking group (WG) consisting of representativesfrom forest owners, forest industries andenvironmental and outdoor recreation NGOs.The WG was given the task to outline the extentand content of the revision process; to draw upthe objectives; the mandate; a timeframe and abudget etc. The WG started working in April. Theresults will be presented to the LF organizations

later this spring, following which a final decisionon how to proceed with the revision will be made.

For further details contact:Elisabeth Gill

Email: [email protected]

AUSTRALIA – the

certification schemecomponents are being

developedThe delivery components of the Australian forestcertification scheme are steadily yet actively

being assembled following publication of theAustralian Forestry Standard (AFS) in February2003.

The forest management standard for certification – the AFS - is now available to all forest managersand owners to access for consideration andapplication to their forest enterprises. A number ofprivate and public forest managers are in theprocess of active consideration/pre-assessment tothe AFS.



PEFC Newsletter - Promoting Sustainable Forest Management For more info: www.pefc.org ( Page 6 )


The accreditation procedure for certificationbodies to gain accreditation in order to certify tothe AFS has reached its approval stage following3 months of drafting and comments from theJAS-ANZ Forestry Sector Technical Committee.It is expected that the procedure will be finalisedand published, independently of the AFS, in May2003.

AFS Limited has recently commenced on aproject to develop a Chain of Custody (CoC)standard relevant to Australian conditions butcognisant however of the PEFC and internationalapproaches to CoC being developed byCEPI/CEIBois. Due to the technical nature of aCoC standard, the timeline for development willbe much shorter than that for the AFS and it is

expected to be completed mid year. Following adecision on its status as an Australian Standard,our national accreditation body, JAS-ANZ, willdevelop a CoC accreditation procedure.

One of the other major components – a pilotcertification study – is being actively pursued byAustralian forest industries, now that the AFS isavailable for certification, so that an activecertification of a forest manager would beunderway at the time of any conformanceassessment.

All in all, Australia has set its sights on seeking,for its scheme, the mutual recognition standingenjoyed by other PEFC members through theconformance assessment in the latter half of2003. In many ways, Australia’s forest industriesare now saying of certification – Bring it on!!

For further details contact: Mark Edwards

E-mail: [email protected]

Below: Henri Plauche Gillon with Mark Edwards

(Australian Forest Standard) and Josef Barton-Dobenín (PEFC Czech Republic)

CZECH REPUBLIC –The First Certification

Body Accredited

Forest certification

More than 1,800,000 ha of forest is currentlycertified in the Czech Republic. The majority isrepresented by the state forests and large privateand communal properties, mainly organised inforest owners associations.

Nowadays, the main target group are mediumand large forest owners (more than 50 hectares).Using databases of forest owners kept by theCzech Ministry of Agriculture, most forest ownerswith more than 50 hectares will be contacted thissummer to join the regional certification.

Intensive preparation for the surveillance audit,which should be carried out shortly, is ongoing.

Chain of Custody certificationThe national normative document for Chain ofCustody certification has been endorsed by thePEFC Council as meeting their new requirements.

The Czech Society for Quality – CSQ Cert, thecertification body, which participated in the pilotproject of the national C-o-C documentdevelopment, obtained accreditation from theCzech Accreditation Institute in January 2003.

The next certification body, Bureau VeritasQuality International is at the final stage of theaccreditation process.

The first chain of custody certificates were issuedto the companies participating in the pilot projectsduring February and March. Currently, thecertification process is ongoing in the largestwood-processing companies, Frantschachprocessing pulpwood and StoraEnso - thebiggest roundwood consumer. It is expected thatthe certification of these companies will increasedemand for PEFC certified wood and will

encourage their suppliers, forest owners, loggingcompanies and traders to participate in PEFC.

PEFC Czech RepublicPEFC Czech Republic is preparing to publish thePEFC brochures translated from the originalEnglish version into the Czech language. Seealso PEFC Czech Rep. website (www.pefc.cz).

For further details contact: Pavel Hes

Email : [email protected]



PEFC Newsletter - Promoting Sustainable Forest Management For more info: www.pefc.org ( Page 7 )


GERMANY– Demand for PEFC

certified timber increases

Within a few months PEFC has become

obligatory for market access in Germany. Themajority of forest enterprises has already facedthe demand for timber from certified forests. Asthe number of companies with a chain of custodycertificate is growing rapidly, more and more ofthese companies define a PEFC certificate asrequirement or reduce the price for uncertifiedtimber. A factory in Lower Saxony, for instance,producing wooden composites is paying apremium of 0,50 EURO per cubic metre of pulpwood from certified sources.

After PEFC Germany had published an expertopinion concerning a passage in the coalitiongovernment´s contract, the government modifiedthe wording. Originally this contract contained thepassage “within four years all the timberpurchased by the federal government shall comefrom FSC certified forests”. In the newagricultural report published in January 2003 thissentence is repeated but with the addition“dependent on conformity with WTO regulationsand German legislation in the field of publicprocurement”.

For further details contact:Dirk Teegelbekkers Email: [email protected]

PEFC France keeps

growing

Progress of certified forestsareas

Since its creation (June 1999), PEFC France hasbeen working for the recognition of itssustainable forest management (SFM)

certification scheme. Based on consultation andpermanent search for consensus among a panelof interested parties as wide as possible, thePEFC Council has endorsed the French scheme(July 2001) and hence, deliver to France the rightto use the PEFC logo.Since then, twenty regional associations -

created between October 2000 and December2001- gather 450 administrators who areimplementing the scheme on the field. Theseassociations cover the whole metropolitan

French territory. A steadily increasing number ofpublic and private forest owners choose tobecome members of PEFC through theseassociations. In average, it takes about 18months for a regional association to implementthe scheme and be awarded with its first PEFCSFM-certificate.In April 2003, 13 regional associations (out of 20)were certified : Burgundy, the two Normandie,Pays de Loire, Britanny, Aquitania, Centre,Rhone-Alpes, Alsace, Limousin, Franche-Comté,Midi-Pyrénées and Champagne-Ardennes.10% of the metropolitan French forests areas arePEFC-certified. It is expected that almost all theregional associations will achieve PEFCcertification by the end of 2003. Half of theFrench roundwood production is expected to bePEFC during year 2004 (i.e. 25 M m

3).

Progress of certified companiesThe system for the verification of PEFC woodchain-of-custody has been operational sincemarch 2003. So far, more than 80 Frenchcompanies harvesting of processing wood orPEFC-certified products have implemented it. Thefirst French retailers shall sell these as labelledproducts from September 2003 onwards. PEFCFrance is leading a significant communicationcampaign dedicated to the elect and the retailersin order to develop markets for certified

products.PEFC France has also recently launchedits Internet site: http://www.pefc-france.org

For further details contact: Stéphane Marchesi


The PEFC National Governing Body inUSA covers two national schemes – the Sustainable Forestry Initiative

(SFI) and the American Tree FarmSystem (ATFS)

SFI® Program

Alberta ForestCare Recognizes SFI

®

& CSAAlberta ForestCare, a provincial certificationsystem developed by the Alberta Forest ProductAssociation, now recognizes companiesachieving certification under the SustainableForestry Initiative® (SFI) program and theCanadian Standards Association (CSA) asfunctionally equivalent to ForestCare.

Under the new policy, any Alberta ForestProducts Association member who has achieved





certification under the SFI® program or CSA willautomatically be deemed to be “certified”members of the ForestCare program.

This policy change resulted from extensivecomparative analysis of the three standards andthe interest of ForestCare participants in pursuingSFI or CSA certification. The Alberta ForestProducts Association represents 62 membersthat manage 20.2 million hectares.

New SFI® Program Participants - The

Sustainable Forest Initiative® (SFI) programwelcomes our newest program participants;Sundance Forest Industries, Ltd. of Edson,Alberta, Lampe & Malphrus Lumber Company ofSmithfield, North Carolina, and Pollard LumberCompany, Inc. of Appling, Georgia

Sundance Forest Industries produces 90 millionboard feet of specialty lumber annually,supporting 125 hourly employees and 35 staffmembers. Sundance has a 20 year forestmanagement agreement with the Province ofAlberta to establish, grow, harvest and removetimber from approximately 267,000 hectares ofpublic land.

Lampe & Malphrus runs and operates 7 retailbuilding supply stores, a millwork company and a

specialty pine sawmill. They produce between10-30 million board feet per year of yellow pinefor grade lumber and export. Half of their productis shipped to Europe and the other half is sold totreating plants and remanufacturing plants.Lampe & Malphrus is also a member of theSouthern Forest Products Association.

Pollard Lumber Company has beenmanufacturing Southern Yellow Pine Lumberproducts for about fifty years. They are a familyowned and operated company that employs good

management techniques to promote wood as asustained renewable resource. Pollard is the14th SFI licensee to join under the SoutheasternLumber Manufactures Association (SLMA)marketing agreement.

For more information please contact: Jason Metnick


CANADA – CSA

Revised CSA SustainableForest Management Standard

The CSA’s Sustainable Forest Management(SFM) Standard was first published in 1996 andfollowing 5 years of implementation experience, itunderwent a revision process to produce the newand improved 2002 version. The new CSA SFMStandard, CSA-Z809-2002 is available at theCSA web site, certifiedwood.csa.ca or you candownload a free electronic copy from the CSAon-line store (www.csa-intl.org/onlinestore).

Current CSA SFM Certification Status:Over 14 million hectares of forest land has beencertified to the CSA SFM Standard (CSA-Z809)in Canada as of December 31, 2002. In addition,a recent industry-wide Canadian survey ofcertification intentions revealed that by the end of2006 some 71.7 million hectares are to becertified to the CSA SFM Standard. For furtherdetails, on certification status or intentions inCanada, visit www.CertificationCanada.org.

For further details contact: Katie Altoft


FINLAND - Revision of Forest Certification

Standard in Its Final

Stretch The Working Group on Forest CertificationStandards has submitted its presentation for thestandard to be used in forest certification in theFinnish Forest Certification System (FFCS). TheWorking Group continues to put the finishingtouches to the revised standard. The objective isfor the standard in its entirety to be ready by theend of next September.

The draft approved by the Working Group on16th April 2003 aims to present the criteria text inas unambiguous a format as possible so thatapplicants for forest certification and auditors ofcertification bodies will have converging view asto the requirements set for the forestmanagement.

In addition to the criteria related to the forestcentre level, the Working Group will also review





the criteria drawn up for local forest managementassociation and forest owner levels. All the keyorganisations and interest groups in the forestfields were invited to the Working Group, whichhas representatives from twenty-threeorganisations. Prior to approval by the WG, thedrafted SFM standard version was distributedwidely in the beginning of March 2003. An “Openseminar” with lively discussion and comments onthe draft version took place on 12th March inHelsinki. More information on the revisionprocess can be found on the web pages:http://www.ffcs-finland.org/tyoryhma2002 andhttp://www.ffcs-finland.org/workinggroup2002.

For further details contact:Auvo Kaivola


BELGIUM - First Chain of

Custody Certificates

In February, the Certification BodyBQA, accredited by Belcert to certify Quality andEnvironmental management systems certified thefirst chain of custodies. The certified companiesbelong to the same group and produce panelboards. The first products with a PEFC logo willsoon come to the markets as one of them (the oneclosest to the consumers) signed a contract to be

allowed to use the PEFC logo.

For further details contact: Bertrand Auqière


AUSTRIA

New National SecretaryDietmar Hagauer replacedGabriele Herzog as thenew PEFC Austria National

Secretary in March. A forester by profession, he

is a graduate of the University of Agriculture andForestry in Vienna.

Using the logoThe name of Binder is synonymous with traditionand trustworthiness in the wood processingsector in combination with high-tech andinnovation. The tyrolean family-owned enterpriseis one of the leading European businesses in thewood processing sector. In the summer of 2001Binder Holz received the PEFC certificate from

HolzCert for all of its products as one of the firstcentral European wood processing enterprises.The organisationactively uses thePEFC logo. PEFCstrengthens theimage of theforestry sector andproducts that aremade of wood as arenewableresource in terms of cyclic management. Thehigh standard of sustainable forest managementis promoted, secured and documented.(www.binderholz.com )

PEFC is synonymous for monitored processingof wood as a natural resource. Compliance with

the respective criteria – from forest managementto manufacturing of wood products – is monitoredby independent inspectors. In Austria alone,around 180 companies in the fields of pulp andpaper, board manufacturing, sawmilling andretailing have been certified according to thePEFC scheme. Certification is becoming acentral factor in the purchasing decision for moreand more international buyers and consumers.

Regional re-auditsAll of the nine Austrian

regions havesuccessfullycompleted the re-auditing process. The Austrian Association ofQuality and Management Systems and SGSconducted the re-audits. In addition to auditingdocuments (business activities and systemstability), on-site monitoring was also conductedand issues were discussed regardingentrepreneurial investment, sylviculture, worksafety and damage by wild game.

For further details contact: Dietmar Hagauer


The first Italian PEFClabeled product is nowavailable (PEFC/18-34-01). The company “Margaritelli”

is buying PEFC woodymaterial (oak – Quercus petraea ) from France and(birch – Betula alba ) fromFinland.

Documents

PEFC Newsletter 15 May 2003