Award winning members at PEFC Forest Certification Week

20 December 2018 News

With an increase of more than nine million hectares of PEFC-certified forests in the US and Canada over the past year, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) took top prize for growth during our PEFC Forest Certification Week award ceremony in mid-November.

“SFI is pleased to be recognized by PEFC for having the most lands certified in the past year,” said Kathy Abusow, CEO of SFI. 

“We are pleased that those using the SFI Forest Management Standard endorsed by PEFC include forest managers and owners, private and public landowners and managers, conservation groups, Indigenous Peoples, universities and community groups such as the Boy Scouts of America.”

“Together, PEFC member organizations are truly making a difference on the ground through forest certification programs which deliver a variety of economic, social and environmental values and benefits.”

In second place was PEFC Sweden with an increase of 4.2 million hectares and PEFC Russia in third with just under 4 million hectares.

“It is impressive to see that all three of the winning countries are long-established members. This shows the true strength and dedication of our organization: we never stand still, all of us throughout the PEFC alliance are constantly striving to do better, to reach more people, and get more forests managed sustainably.”

Chain of Custody grows too

We also award the top three members to grow their Chain of Custody certificates.

This year first place went to SGEC/PEFC Japan for the second time in a row, with an additional 168 Chain of Custody certificates. In second place was PEFC Belarus and PEFC Latvia in third.

“It was an honour for Japan to once again receive the award for biggest increase in the number of chain of custody certificates. We are delighted to see that our dedication to increase the market for PEFC-certified products in Japan has meant we have taken home the award both this year and last year,” said Makiko Horio, SGEC/PEFC Japan.

“However, with the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games 2020 only a few years away, we are hoping to continue this important increase in PEFC-certified companies. Who knows, perhaps we will win again next year!”