Ensuring national standards meet global expectations

As an umbrella organization, we endorse national and regional forest certification systems. In other words, we give approval to these systems. To achieve endorsement, a system goes through a rigorous assessment to confirm it was developed in line with our requirements and meets our demanding international benchmark standards.  

PEFC Uruguay receiving certificate of endorsement

As all systems must go through the same independent assessment process, we can ensure they not only meet global expectations, but that our international requirements are applied consistently at national or regional level. 

We also require that all PEFC endorsed national and regional systems are reviewed regularly to ensure they continue to meet expectations and the latest best practices.

When endorsed, the system becomes part of the PEFC umbrella. Practically, this means that products from a forest certified to a PEFC endorsed system, can be sold as PEFC-certified anywhere in the world. You can easily identify these products through the PEFC label.

See all the forest certification systems currently under assessment.

Assessing national and regional systems

Assessment process

PEFC Registered Assessors are responsible for assessing whether a system meets our requirements - PEFC does not carry out the assessment. Registered assessors are independent consultants with suitable qualifications and experience in the field of sustainable forest management. Their assessment forms an important professional and objective basis for the decision to approve and endorse a system.

The assessment includes a 60-day public consultation, enabling stakeholders globally to comment and provide feedback on any aspect of the system. We also organize a webinar to introduce the system and highlight the main aspects (or introduced changes in the case of revised systems).

The assessor evaluates the compliance of the system with our international benchmark standards. They base the assessment on desk research, field trips, comments from the consultation and other available information.

A major part of the assessment is the verification that the national standard fully meets the requirements of our sustainable forest management benchmark (ST 1003) and that the standard development process followed our standard-setting requirements (ST 1001). In total, assessors verify the system against over 200 checkpoints from our benchmarks.

Mutual recognition

The final result of the assessment is the assessor’s recommendation to the PEFC Board of Directors whether to endorse, or maintain the endorsement of, the system. The endorsement recommendation can include conditions for endorsement.

After a system has successfully passed the assessment process, the PEFC General Assembly votes on its endorsement. A two-thirds majority is required for endorsement. We then make the system documentation, including the national forest management standard, and the assessment report available on our website.