AF&PA Applauds House Letter Supporting Biomass

“We are delighted to welcome the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee (MFCC) as our 51st national member of the PEFC Alliance,” said Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International. “It is great to see that the collaboration with MFCC has been successful and has already led to the acceptance of Myanmar as a member.” We are collaborating with MFCC on a three-year project to support the country as it transitions to the sustainable management of its forests. The project is co-funded by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. “Forest management is not a matter of one country or one region anymore. It becomes a global synergy,” said Barber Cho, Secretary General of MFCC. Click Read More below for additional information.

DS Smith is pleased to confirm that it has received the Brownfield Briefing Award’s Best Biodiversity Enhancement Award for its environmental remediation project at the site of its former papermaking mill at Silverton, Devon, UK. Silverton Mill was one of the UK’s oldest paper mills, and was located within the Killerton National Trust estate in Devon. It closed its doors in 1999 after a paper manufacturing history that had lasted over 200 years, but had left the surrounding area contaminated with industrial waste. The mill buildings themselves rapidly decayed in the years after the machinery was removed from the site. Click Read More below for additional information.

The China Forest Certification Council (CFCC) has announced that the Chinese Government has passed and is enacting immediately its new national forest certification regulations. These important rules set out the scope, framework, and requirements for all forest certifications operating in China. All forest certification activities must comply with the forest certification requirements which require adherence to Chinese national certification standards. “This is an important and historic step for Chinese forestry workers, Chinese forest dependent-communities and Chinese forests, as it recognizes the extensive work undertaken by a multitude of stakeholders to develop both the CFCC Chinese national forest certification and chain of custody certification standards and system,” said Mr. Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International. “In addition, both these national standards have been thoroughly assessed, resulting in international recognition through PEFC endorsement.”