Practicing continuous improvement: The evolution of PEFC standards

17 April 2020 20th anniversary

PEFC International develops sustainability benchmarks that are applicable globally. Yet the real work is done by local stakeholders, who adapt them to local conditions and add their own requirements.

In our latest video, our CEO Ben Gunneberg speaks about the development of the PEFC standards and why it is so important to adapt national forest management standards to local conditions.

“In every country, there's a different type of forestry. So in every country there are different factors which impact how you do your sustainable forestry, so that needed to be taken into consideration. You couldn't have one size fits all,” he explains.

“The national standards are like the mountain linking the international standard to what actually has to be done every day on the ground to ensure sustainable forest management.”

“The various needs and the requirements to interpret the correct implementation of forest management on the ground are then elaborated in that national standard.”