Indonesia and Japan take the spotlight at PEFC General Assembly award ceremony

IFCC and SGEC/PEFC Japan win awards for biggest increase in PEFC-certified forest area and PEFC Chain of Custody certificates.

Indonesia and Japan take the spotlight at PEFC General Assembly award ceremony

1 December 2017 News

With an increase of almost two million hectares of PEFC-certified forests in Indonesia over the past year, the Indonesian Forestry Certification Cooperation (IFCC) took top prize for growth during our PEFC Forest Certification Week award ceremony.

“Without the tremendous support from everyone within the PEFC family and without the strong commitment and hard work from all members of the IFCC family, we would have never arrived at this proud state,” said Dradjad Wibowo, Chairman of IFCC.

“So, IFCC thanks everyone from the PEFC and IFCC families for this! Though we still face huge challenges, we are confident, that together we will prevail," Mr. Wibowo concluded.

In second place was PEFC Finland with an increase of 1.3 million hectares and PEFC Russia in third with 950,000 hectares.

“IFCC only achieved their first certified hectares at the end of 2015, so it’s fantastic to see them win first place just two years later,” said Ben Gunnenberg, CEO of PEFC International, following the ceremony.

“We should soon see even more certified hectares in Indonesia, but this time from community owned forests, as IFCC’s new requirements for community forest management certification come into force.”

Chain of Custody grows too

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

This year the honor went to Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council (SGEC), our member in Japan, who added 117 Chain of Custody certificates. In second place was PEFC Spain, with PEFC Czech Republic in third.

“I would like to congratulate all our members who took home an award today. It is thanks to their, and everyone else within the PEFC alliance’s, continued work and dedication that PEFC continues to be the world’s leading forest certification system.”