PEFC at Asia-Pacific Forestry Week

11 June 2019 News

This year, we travel to Incheon, Republic of Korea, for APFW2019, held between 17-21 June. Reflecting the positive dimensions of forestry, ‘Forests for peace and well-being' is the overall theme of this influential event.

“We are extremely motivated to head out to Korea for Asia-Pacific Forestry Week 2019. With the recent endorsement of the Thai forest certification system and both Vietnam and Myanmar joining the PEFC alliance, it is an exciting time for PEFC in this region,” highlighted Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International CEO.

“Added to this, the approval of our revised Sustainable Forest Management benchmark standard last year means it is now possible for smallholders to achieve PEFC certification of their trees grown outside of forests. This is set to have a big impact in Asia-Pacific.”

PEFC participation

Ben, our CEO, will kick off our participation as he speaks about forests for peace and well-being at the opening plenary session on Tuesday 18 June. You can also find the PEFC team at Booth 35-36 - come and visit us!

Later that day, we are holding a parallel event on ‘reimagining sustainable forest certification: realizing impacts in Asia Pacific’. Part of stream 5, innovating governance and institutions, our event will bring together a range of speakers to discuss PEFC's impact after 20 years of caring for forests globally and locally.

The first of two panel sessions will look at how forest certification has contributed to sustainability and facilitation of trade. The second panel session focuses on emerging initiatives to realize sustainable forest management. 

Following a series of internal events, including a collaborative meeting between the region’s national PEFC members, we have a second parallel session on the Friday. 

Part of stream 4, promoting responsible trade and markets, the event will focus on synergies between Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and certification. Through this session, we look to develop initiatives to synergize FLEGT and certification using a common infrastructure. 

Find out more about our participation...

Global accreditation body training

Once APFW2019 is over, we invite accreditation bodies to join our training session, co-organized with KoFPI, our national member for Korea.

The objective of the two-day classroom training is for accreditation bodies to improve their technical competence to run a PEFC Chain of Custody programme. The training starts with a field trip to highlight the host country, including its certified forest area, with a focus on group certification.