COP 16: PEFC’s 25-year journey of empowering smallholders and promoting sustainable forest management

As we kick off the FSC US Forest Management (FM) Standard revision process, FSC US is looking for several consultants to apply their knowledge and experience. We have identified areas of work needed to address issues identified by stakeholders, in combination with requirements embedded in the revised FSC Principles & Criteria (Version 5) and associated International Generic Indicators. Materials, analysis and recommendations developed by these consultants will inform the efforts of the FM Revision Working Group in the following areas: •Protections for Indigenous Peoples and their rights; •Family Forest indicators and guidance and associated terminology used in the standard; •FSC US Region boundaries and regional requirements. Click Read More below for additional information.

PEFC and the Handicraft & Wood Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA) will work together to develop PEFC Chain of Custody certification in Viet Nam: this was one of the key results from a week of outreach in the country. PEFC-certified material from around the world is already used by many solid wood processing companies in Viet Nam - in particular by the furniture manufacturing members of HAWA. Focus is now switching to the development of a national forest certification system in the country, paving the way for the production of domestic PEFC-certified sources.

A Sappi-sponsored programme which helps communities adjacent to forestry plantations to become beekeepers, has shown some unexpectedly encouraging results during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-profit consultant and founder of the African Honey Bee programme, Guy Stubbs, who has more than 30 years’ experience in small and micro-enterprise development, was struck by the incredible resilience being demonstrated by the families that have been part of this beekeeping project. Collectively, since the beginning of the year, the participating families have harvested about five tonnes of honey, earning close to R360,000, despite the national lockdown. During a recent survey undertaken in the Sokhulu community in KwaZulu-Natal (North of Richards Bay), where the project has been running for the last couple of years and a new community in Thembalethu, Mpumalanga where training had not yet begun, Guy noticed some marked differences in people’s approach to the situation brought about by the international health crisis. “While the families in Thembalethu were watching TV and waiting for government to hand out food parcels, the 100 families that we interviewed in Sokhulu were producing and even selling vegetables, chickens, eggs and honey,” he says. All 100 families were producing honey, 85 were growing vegetables, 27 were producing eggs and 39 were producing chickens for meat,” he says.