Our Board of Directors – in the service of PEFC

At PEFC, key decisions are not made by one person alone. We ensure that decision-making is done through consensus-driven processes that involve a wide range of parties, and that no single stakeholder or stakeholder group can become too powerful.

While the General Assembly, our multi-stakeholder governance body, has the final say on decisive issues, our Board of Directors has an important role to play in support of it.

The Board comprises the Chairperson of PEFC International, two Vice-Chairs and two to twelve Board members elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term.

Development over the years

From the beginning, the diversity and equal representation of different groups was fundamental for the composition of the Board, as engraved in the original 1999 PEFC statutes:

“The constitution of the Board members should intend to reflect the major interested parties who support the PEFC, the geographical distribution of the members and the diversity of their annual cutting categories.”

Changes in society’s understanding as to what diversity entails triggered a modification in our statutes in 2002, with the requirement of “appropriate gender balance” within the Board added to promote women’s rights. 

In 2005, Kathy Bradley was the first woman to be elected into the Board. Director of External Affairs for The Paper Federation of Great Britain, she was nominated by PEFC UK. After 2005, more women followed. 

Currently, five of our 14 board members are women, including both of our Vice Chairs, and we continue to work on achieving an appropriate balance of all genders. 

Our growth from a purely European organization to a global organization expanded our own understanding of diversity, as we acknowledged the need to ensure that indigenous people are represented. We were honoured when Minnie Degawan, an indigenous Kankanaey-Igorot from the Philippines and an activist for indigenous people’s rights, joined our Board in 2010. She worked as a Project Coordinator for the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal People of the Tropical Forests (IAITPFT) when she joined our Board.

In 2013, we welcomed Juan Carlos Jintiach to our Board. A member of the Shuar, an indigenous group in the Amazon Rainforest of Ecuador, he has worked extensively with indigenous communities and organizations. He is Coordinator of the International Economic Cooperation and Autonomous Indigenous Development for COICA.

The PEFC International Chairs

In its 20-year history, PEFC has seen four Chairpersons leading its operations.

Henri Plauche-Gillon was our first Chairman and one of the founding fathers who established PEFC in 1999.

It was during his term that we opened our first office in Luxembourg, welcomed our first 31 members, endorsed the first systems and got our very first certified hectares of forest.

He was followed by Michael Clark, former Chairman of PEFC UK and Vice-President within M-real Corporation’s Consumer Packaging Division, who took office from 2006 to 2009. During his term, our area of certified forests reached the 200-million hectare mark and we relocated the PEFC International offices from Luxembourg to Geneva, Switzerland.

 

 

William V. Street Jr led PEFC International from 2009 to 2016. Working as Director of the Woodworkers Department of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Bill brought experience in directing forestry projects around the world.

During his term of office, we endorsed the first standards in Asia Pacific and Africa.

Our current Chairman is Peter Latham, OBE. He was Chairman of PEFC UK before he joined the PEFC International Board in 2011 and elected to his current position in 2016. Peter had worked for James Latham PLC for 44 years, including eleven years as Chairman.

In his term of office, we reached 300 million hectares of PEFC-certified forest and 20,000 companies with PEFC Chain of Custody certification.

Learn more about our Board of Directors here!

source: https://www.pefc.org/news/our-board-of-directors-in-the-service-of-pefc

Do you know how PEFC is governed?

Our governance is bottom up, which means it is our members who make the key decisions through a balanced voting system. This enables us to build on our national members’ local expertise, complemented by the experiences of internationally active organizations.

This unique structure allows for ethical and responsible decision-making that incorporates the combined experiences and knowledge of all stakeholders at national and international levels, including individuals on the ground as they are represented through our national members.  

Our commitment to participation, democracy and equity is a critical and central element within the governance of our organization. We have three decision-making bodies: the General Assembly, the PEFC International Board and the Secretary General

PEFC General Assembly, November 2018, Geneva

PEFC General Assembly

The General Assembly is our highest authority and decision-making body. It is made up of all PEFC members, including both national and international stakeholder members with voting rights, and extraordinary members as observers. 

The General Assembly votes on the key decisions of our organization, such as new members, statutes and budgets. It is also responsible for the endorsement of national forest certification systems (after they have successfully completed the assessment process), and the formal approval of international standards.

All national members have between one and seven votes, depending on their membership fees, while the international stakeholder members have one vote each.

A delegate represents every PEFC member, and they all have the right to introduce items to the agenda of the work of the General Assembly or the PEFC International Board. Once a year the General Assembly meets in person, this is usually in November during the PEFC Forest Certification Week. The next PEFC Week takes place in Würzburg, Germany, 11-15 November 2019.

PEFC International Board meeting, November 2018

The PEFC International Board

Our Board supports the work of the General Assembly and the organization as a whole, and is accountable to all members. 

Board members are elected for a 3-year term and one third of the Board members are eligible for re-election in any one year. 

The composition of the Board should aim to reflect the major interested parties who support PEFC, the geographical distribution of members, the diversity of their annual cutting categories and an appropriate gender balance.

The Nominations Committee

The Nominations Committee is responsible for proposing a list of candidates to fill the vacancies within the PEFC International Board.

Bill Street, member of the Nominations Committee

Every year, we invite PEFC members to nominate candidates for the Board. The Nominations Committee guides our members by advising them on what qualifications and experience are sought from the nominees.

Once the members have submitted their nominees, the Nominations Committee is responsible for considering the nominations and proposing a list of candidates to fill the vacancies within the Board. This includes the Chairman, Vice Chairs and Board members. This list is proposed to, and voted on by, the PEFC General Assembly.

 

 

 

 

source: https://www.pefc.org/news/do-you-know-how-pefc-is-governed

From 12 to 81: the story of PEFC membership & governance

PEFC is much more than just the secretariat in Geneva. We are an alliance of national forest certification systems, NGOs, labour unions, businesses, trade associations, forest owner organizations and committed individuals. Together, we work towards our vision of a world that values the contribution of sustainable forests to our planet and our lives.

Our members are a vital part of the PEFC alliance. From the 12 founding members, to the current 81 members (51 national and 30 international stakeholder members), representing several hundred national stakeholder groups, we have grown and become global. But how have we got to this point – and how has it changed the very nature of PEFC?

Our founding members: forest owners

In 1999, 12 organizations came together to create PEFC. These organizations represented forest owners in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. 

Soon joined by organizations from other European countries, and then globally, these are our national members (also known as National Governing Bodies). They are independent, national organizations responsible for developing and running the national forest certification system within their country. 

One of the distinct characteristics of our national members is that they have the support of their country’s forest owners. Forest owners and managers are important stakeholders as they are responsible for implementing forest management requirements and pursuing certification. It is therefore essential that they are supportive of, and involved in, the national process. This is why we require that our national members obtain their support. 

National members manage “everything PEFC” within their respective country, as well as providing support to the PEFC-certified companies and forest owners. They can range in size from one person to a large team, but all of them are dedicated to promoting sustainable forest management within their country and globally. Meet our national members.

The early years: engaging the forest sector

It was soon clear that other organizations supporting the objectives of PEFC wanted to be involved, leading to the creation of extraordinary members. With this, we moved beyond our initial focus on forest owners, offering stakeholders from the entire forest sector the opportunity to become directly involved with PEFC. 

Organizations admitted into membership at this stage were the Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF), European Confederation of Woodworking Industries (CEI-Bois), European Landowners’ Organisation (ELO), European Timber Trade Association (FEBO) and Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI).

Achieving maturity: implementing multi-stakeholder governance

In 2008, it was time for a change. We appointed expert consultants to help undertake a comprehensive governance review with stakeholders worldwide. As a result, and in order to encourage a broader range of stakeholders to participate in the PEFC governance process, we introduced the international stakeholder member category. This enabled us to engage international actors for whom it is difficult to get involved at local and national level. 

The birth of international stakeholder membership represented a fundamental change in how PEFC was governed. But not only that: it changed the very nature of PEFC. 

Ten years on, there are 30 international stakeholder members from around the world - an integral part of the PEFC alliance. They include organizations, associations and international companies whose principles and objectives are in line with our own. These members perform a vital role in supporting the work we do. Meet our international stakeholder members.

PEFC today: a joint effort

Accepting international stakeholders into PEFC membership fundamentally changed our own understanding of ourselves. PEFC was no longer only about forest owners delivering a service to society. We became a joint effort of everyone interested in promoting sustainable forest management. 

Today, stakeholders of all realms of life not only participate in the development of our standards, but also in PEFC as a global association. They share their knowledge and offer a helping hand in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of our organization, and actively contribute to the governance of PEFC.

source: https://pefc.org/news/from-12-to-81-the-story-of-pefc-membership-governance

Small-forest owners at the heart of PEFC

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we have spoken a lot about the importance of small-forest owners. They are the reason we were created. But how do we ensure that they can access certification?

The answer is group certification. Group certification enables small-forest landowners to group together and organize themselves, pool their resources and work as a team to achieve certification. This makes PEFC certification affordable and practical for smallholders.

Around one million small-forest owners have achieved PEFC certification through group certification, and the number continues to grow. This is a testimony to the fact that forest certification is possible for small landholders, and that it is a powerful and cost-effective way of promoting forest conservation and sustainable management.

See how group certification works….

But developing the group certification mechanism is just the starting point

Through our Collaboration Fund and other PEFC initiatives, we continue to invest in projects and activities that support smallholder certification through engagement, innovation and capacity building. From South Africa and Portugal, to New Zealand and Nepal, our projects cross the globe. See all our smallholder projects…

We are also developing tools, such as certification for Trees outside Forests. This enables smallholders growing trees outside of forests, such as on agricultural land or within settlements, to achieve certification and take advantage of the benefits it brings.

It is vital that smallholders are able to gain PEFC certification for their sustainable practices. However, with 25% of forests owned by families and communities, it is important for the world too. In fact, in many of the countries striving to establish or expand certified forest area, small landholdings represent a significant share of the forest resource.

Smallholders at our heart, forever

In the 20 years since we were created, we have continually strengthened our approach. An approach that has been adopted by increasing numbers of stakeholders, making PEFC today the world's largest forest certification system. 

But while we continue to grow, we have never forgotten our roots. We are, and will always be, the certification system of choice for small forest owners.

20 years of caring

From July to June, there will be many opportunities to get involved in our celebrations. 

Later this year, we will launch our #myPEFCmoment campaign, and everybody can take part. Just take a picture of the PEFC label on a product, share it online with the hashtag #myPEFCmoment and win fantastic prizes!

The hashtag #20yearsofcaring provides a collection of activities of PEFC members and stakeholders around the world.

source: https://www.pefc.org/news/small-forest-owners-at-the-heart-of-pefc

PEFC – A manifestation of a passion for forests

While there is a definite day on which PEFC was founded – the 30th June 1999 – the idea that led to PEFC evolved during a range of meetings and discussions that lasted over a year. PEFC was neither the only, nor the most significant, outcome of these discussions.

But what could be more significant than PEFC, an organization that evolved to become the world’s leading forest certification system?

Passion, or more concretely, the understanding of small- and family forest owners that they all share the same passion for forests, for responsible forest management. That they all benefit from collaboration and cooperation, from sharing best practices and mutually supporting each other. And that they needed to start speaking with one voice to get themselves heard – and PEFC became part of this voice. 

Speaking with one voice was urgently needed at that time. In the 1990s, decision makers in politics, international and intergovernmental organizations, engaged in a range of processes aimed at defining sustainable forest management, including the Forest Europe  process, the 1992 Rio Forest Principles, the Montreal Process, the Lepaterique Process or the ITTO process. 

These processes were all – and some are still – important, and shaped our common understanding of sustainable forest management. Yet they all shared one significant challenge: while the multitude of processes is a recognition that forests are highly diverse, these processes didn’t recognize that forest management, local traditions, cultural and spiritual expectations, average property sizes and support structures are highly diverse as well. 

This challenge was amplified by the inability of small-and family forest owners to speak with one voice, to raise awareness of their specific circumstances within these high level processes. 

The meetings and discussions that led to the foundation of PEFC took place against this backdrop. Unsurprisingly, the recognition that forest management is diverse, and that this diversity means one size does not fit all when it comes to forest certification, is core to PEFC. 

This is why we do not set one international standard that all forest owners must follow in order to achieve certification. Instead, we work through national forest certification systems, enabling countries to tailor their sustainable forest management requirements to their specific forest ecosystems, the legal and administrative framework, the socio-cultural context and other relevant factors – but more about this on a later date.

Our roots in small-and family forestry can be found in another concrete outcome of this newfound understanding of the shared passion for forests in the late 1990s: the launch of the International Family Forestry Alliance (IFFA). IFFA became another part of the voice of small- and family forest owners, with the specific objective “to be recognized as an important stakeholder and be consulted by the United Nations and other international processes affecting sustainable forest management”. 

The IFFA was launched on 1 July 2002 – three years after PEFC, in the PEFC offices in Luxembourg. IFFA and PEFC – two organisation grown out of small and family forest owners’ passion for forest.

 

source: https://www.pefc.org/news/pefc-a-manifestation-of-a-passion-for-forests