Give your feedback on our revised Sustainable Forest Management benchmark!
The deadline to give feedback on the revised PEFC Sustainable Forest Management benchmark approaches! Give your comments by 26 June.
Give your feedback on our revised Sustainable Forest Management benchmark!
19 June 2018 Sustainable Forest Management
You only have a few days left to share your insights and knowledge to help us further improve our revised Sustainable Forest Management benchmark.
Give your feedback now! Deadline is 26 June 2018.
This vital document is at the core of what we do. It provides the basis for the requirements that forest owners or managers must meet to achieve PEFC certification at local level. We therefore need to ensure that it continues to meet the demands and expectations – now and in the future.
Social requirements and the Sustainable Development Goals
This new benchmark extends the impact of PEFC certification beyond forests and enhances its contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
We have expanded the social requirements to include minimum wages for forest workers, equal opportunities for employment and non-discrimination (SDG 8), and promote gender equality (SDG 5).
There are also enhanced provisions specifically designed to safeguard the interests of indigenous peoples and the equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of traditional and local knowledge. (SDG 2 and 4).
The PEFC benchmark is also the first global sustainable forest management standard that specifically requires respect for human rights as defined by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
What else has changed?
For many stakeholders, especially small-forest owners, an important change is the inclusion of Trees outside Forests (ToF).This will make PEFC certification accessible to the millions of farmers and smallholders that do not own or manage forests, but rather trees on agricultural or settlement land that are currently outside the scope of certification.
The revised document also includes a refined definition of ecologically important forest areas, supports climate positive practices and forbids the reforestation or afforestation of ecologically important non-forest areas.
To find out more, take a look at the revision documentation: