The French PEFC System has become the latest national forest certification system to seek PEFC endorsement for the fourth time.
Stakeholders globally are invited to provide feedback on its compliance with PEFC International’s Sustainability Benchmarks by 23 August 2016.
France first achieved PEFC endorsement of its national system back in 2000, and now becomes the latest country to have submitted a system for re-endorsement for a third time. The country is home to over 8 million hectares of certified forest, and with over 2000 Chain of Custody certificates, France is the world leader in PEFC Chain of Custody certified companies.
PEFC International ensures that national systems are revised regularly in multi-stakeholder processes by limiting the validity of endorsements to five years, after which they can apply for re-endorsement to continue benefitting from PEFC recognition.
As part of the endorsement process, PEFC seeks comments and feedback from all interested parties to ensure full compliance of the national systems with PEFC’s Sustainability Benchmark during a 60-day global public consultation.
All comments received during the global public consultation will provide valuable information for the third-party assessor in determining whether the respective national system is in compliance with international requirements.
All stakeholders are invited to use PEFC’s Online Consultation Tool to provide comments on the French PEFC System by 23 August 2016.
http://pefc.org/news-a-media/general-sfm-news/2159-france-seeks-pefc-re-endorsement-public-consultation-open