COP 16: PEFC’s 25-year journey of empowering smallholders and promoting sustainable forest management

31 October 2024 Event report

“PEFC has been promoting nature-positive and people-positive sustainable forest management for the past 25 years, and the structures that we have put in place can be scaled up to bring even more forests under sustainable management,” said Thorsten Arndt, Head of Advocacy at PEFC International, at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 16) yesterday.

Speaking at the side event “Sustainable Forest Management: Key to Biodiversity” he explained that not only about a quarter of the world’s production forests is certified under PEFC, but also one million smallholders have achieved PEFC certification. 

Smallholders manage a significant portion of the world’s production forests. Recent estimates suggest that smallholders are responsible for managing around 25% of all production forests globally. This highlights the crucial role they play in sustainable forest management and the broader forestry sector, and PEFC has successfully made certification accessible to them.

“The success of PEFC is based on our work through national standards. These recognise that not only forests, but also people are different in different countries, and national standards can adapt to the specific local circumstances. This approach ensures local ownership, which is key for long-term commitment,” Thorsten explained. 

“And our global sustainability benchmark ensures that all national standards are contributing to our joint efforts towards nature-positive and people-positive.”

He also highlighted that certification requires third-party auditing, ensuring that the positive impact is independently verified. 

The side event, hosted by Ibà, PEFC and the WBCSD, spotlighted successful practices and innovative projects by the BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group, Sumitomo Forestry and Suzano and how they contribute to the Global Biodiversity Framework, and was moderated by Gary Dunning from The Forest Dialogue.