Forest certification is crucial in providing evidence of sustainable forest management. Increasingly, this proof is a prerequisite for doing business; certified forest materials are requested more and more in procurement policies around the world. In turn, forest certification has a direct economic and social impact on the communities that depend on these forests for their livelihoods.

Today just 10 percent of the world’s forests are certified. In tropical and sub-tropical areas this figure drops to under two percent. In total, two-thirds of the total certified area is certified to PEFC’s Sustainability Benchmarks that carefully balance the economic pillar of sustainability with the environmental and social, while maintaining compliance with internationally accepted requirements for sustainable forest management.

PEFC, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, is well placed to expand forest certification globally through its unique bottom-up approach to certification, developed by and for smallholders, and nowadays providing evidence for responsible management of forests of all sizes.

The brochure “Promoting Sustainable Forest Management: Introducing PEFC’s Unique Approach to Forest Certification” highlights what makes PEFC the certification system of choice for stakholders globally.