American Tree Farm System seeks PEFC re-endorsement: public consultation open
Give your feedback on the ATFS national forest certification system.
American Tree Farm System seeks PEFC re-endorsement: public consultation open
25 November 2016 PEFC system news
The American Tree Farm System (ATFS) has become the latest national forest certification system to seek PEFC endorsement, and stakeholders globally are invited to provide feedback on its compliance with our Sustainability Benchmarks by 7 January 2017.
ATFS is one of the oldest initiatives for certifying sustainable forestry in the world. It was first launched in 1941 as a private initiative to address concerns that America's forests were being cut at unsustainable rates without reforestation.
It now represents 74,000 tree farmers sustainably managing more than 7.7 million hectares of PEFC-certified forestland.
ATFS first achieved PEFC endorsement back in 2008, and this latest revision of the standard will mark the third time the national standard has been submitted to PEFC.
Revising the standard
PEFC International ensures that national systems are revised regularly in multi-stakeholder processes by limiting the validity of endorsements to five years, after which they can apply for re-endorsement to continue benefitting from PEFC recognition.
As part of the endorsement process, PEFC seeks comments and feedback from all interested parties to ensure full compliance of the national systems with PEFC's Sustainability Benchmark during a 60-day global public consultation.
All comments received during the global public consultation will provide valuable information for the third-party assessor in determining whether the respective national system is in compliance with international requirements.
All stakeholders are invited to use PEFC's Online Consultation Tool to provide comments on the ATFS by 7 January 2017.