Forests for peace and well-being: PEFC at APFW

Mid-June, the PEFC team travelled to Korea for the 2019 Asia-Pacific Forestry Week. One of the largest and most important forestry gatherings in the region, the theme was ‘Forests for peace and well-being’.

Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International CEO, opened our participation, speaking on the panel of the first APFW plenary session, focused on forests for peace and well-being.

“Forest certification is more than just sustainable forest management. It’s about collaboration of people to enable ongoing dialogue, conflict resolution and problem solving at all levels for peace.”

Reimagining sustainable forest certification
Later that day, our parallel event on ‘reimagining sustainable forest certification: realizing impacts in Asia Pacific’ looked at PEFC’s impact after 20 years of caring for forests.

Speakers discussed how forest certification has contributed to sustainability and the facilitation of trade. They highlighted the many advantages of certification, such as improving market access and its positive impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Certification is not just about trade, but about people and the next generation,” said Yong Teng Koon, Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC).

Pulp and paper companies use certification as a catalyst to help them identify where there are gaps. Managing forests sustainably, inclusively of local communities’ interests, is vital for their business to survive.

The session also discussed emerging initiatives to realize sustainable forest management, such as the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR).

“There is a change of culture within companies seeing certification as an integral benefit to ensure robust internal systems,” said David Syme, accreditation and certification specialist.
more at: https://pefc.org/news/forests-for-peace-and-well-being-pefc-at-apfw

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