PEFC national standards are developed locally. To make sure they continue to meet our evolving international requirements, they have to be reviewed every five years.

In our latest video, we hear from Andre Laroze, National Secretary of Certfor/PEFC Chile, who shares insights into the latest revision process of the Chilean Forest Management Standard.

“When we began the last revision of our Sustainable Forest Management Standard, we noticed how much the Chilean society and the forestry sector had developed during these years,” he explains.

“This meant that the expectations regarding the use of natural resources had achieved much higher levels that needed to be properly addressed. Many different stakeholders with different points of view participated in the discussion of the requirements.”

“Although the Certfor standard addressed the main issues of the day, sustainable development is a continuous process. New social, environmental demands arise over time. This implies that the standards must evolve, too, to address those new issues.”

Find out more about the revision process of national standards.

source: https://pefc.org/news/revising-our-national-standards-insights-from-chile

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.”

source: https://pefc.org/news/practicing-continuous-improvement-the-evolution-of-pefc-standards