Polish forest certification scheme open for public consultation
Stakeholders globally are invited to provide feedback on its compliance with PEFC International's Sustainability Benchmarks by 15 September 2014.
Polish forest certification scheme open for public consultation
16 July 2014 PEFC system news
The Polish Forest Certification Scheme is the latest system to seek PEFC re-endorsement for the first time and stakeholders globally are invited to provide feedback on its compliance with PEFC International's Sustainability Benchmarks by 15 September 2014.
PEFC Poland first achieved endorsement in 2008 and since then 7.3 million hectares of Polish forests have been PEFC-certified – equating to over 80% of the country’s forests. At 9 million hectares, forests cover almost one third of Poland’s land area, including one of the remaining areas of primary forest in Europe.
The use of Group Certification is of particular importance in Poland - for both publicly and privately owned forests - with all Polish forests either certified as a group or region. PEFC created Group Certification to enable small forest owners to achieve certification by sharing the financial and administrative costs that could otherwise restrict their access to certification.
As part of the endorsement process, PEFC seeks comments and feedback from all interested parties to ensure full compliance of the national system with PEFC's Sustainability Benchmark during a 60-day global public consultation.
"PEFC has arguably the most rigorous assessment process for national certification systems seeking recognition at international level," said Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International Secretary General, "The consultation period is a vital part of the assessment process of all national systems that are seeking endorsement or re-endorsement by PEFC."
All comments received during the global public consultation will provide valuable information for the third-party assessor in determining whether the Polish Forest Certification Scheme is in compliance with international requirements.
Interested stakeholders are invited to use PEFC's Online Consultation Tool to provide comments on the Polish Forest Certification Scheme by 15 September 2014.