Norway seeks PEFC endorsement for a fourth time: public consultation open

3 March 2015 PEFC system news

The Norwegian Forest Certification Scheme has become the latest system to seek PEFC endorsement for the fourth time. Stakeholders globally are invited to provide feedback on its compliance with PEFC International's Sustainability Benchmarks by 4 May 2015.

Alongside Finland and Sweden, Norway was among the first countries to achieve endorsement of its national forest certification system back in 2000. This was then followed by two successful re-endorsements of the system in 2006 and 2010.

There are now over 9 million hectares of PEFC-certified Norwegian forests, making up almost 90% of the country’s forests. Practically all production forest in Norway is PEFC certified.

PEFC International limits the validity of endorsements to five years, ensuring that national systems are revised in multi-stakeholder processes 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 Norwegian Forest Certification Scheme by 4 May 2015.