Russian national forest certification system achieves PEFC re-endorsement

19 February 2016 PEFC system news

Russia has successfully achieve PEFC re-endorsement of its national forest certification system, confirming that it meets PEFC’s globally recognized Sustainability Benchmarks and ensuring that Russian certified forest owners and companies can benefit from the global acceptance of PEFC.

With the Russian Federation containing an estimated 800 million hectares of forest, the equivalent to over 20% of the world's forest area and more than Canada and Brazil combined, the continued development and increase of sustainable forest management in the country will have considerable environmental, social and economic benefits.

PEFC International remains the only global forest certification system to limit endorsements of national systems, requiring standards revisions before a system can re-apply for endorsement.

Revisions are required to ensure that latest scientific research, practical experiences and best practices from the field, but also evolving values, expectations, and aspirations of society towards sustainable forest management are systematically incorporated in these revisions and then implemented at national, regional and local level.

The initial endorsement of the Russian Forest Certification Scheme expired on 31 August 2015.