“We were delighted to welcome three new national members to the PEFC Alliance during our General Assembly”, said Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International, as Macedonia, Romania and Thailand became the latest countries to join PEFC.
“In fact, this year has been an incredible year for us, with six new national members and four new international stakeholder members. We’ve not had a year like this since we were created over 16 years ago!”
Any organization wishing to join the PEFC Alliance must be voted in by the other PEFC members. For most of the year, this is done through a postal ballot. But once a year, at the General Assembly, all our members come together and get to cast their votes in person.
new member thailandThis meant that representatives from both Romania and Thailand could be present to see their membership approved by their peers.
“We would like to thank all the organizations that have helped to set us up, particularly PEFC which has mentored and supported us over the last years,” said Pimjai Leeissaranukul from The Federation of Thai Industries (F.T.I.), following the approval of FTI as the national member for Thailand.
“The advice and support from the whole PEFC alliance will be invaluable to us as we continue our journey.”
new member romania“Thank you to everyone that voted for us,” said István Tőke from PEFC Romania.
“The last 25 years have seen great changes to forest ownership in Romania, moving from 100% state ownership to a 50/50 share – and the restitution process is still not finished.”
“We hope that our national forest certification system will achieve PEFC endorsement by the end of 2017, and that we can welcome our first PEFC-certified forest in early 2018!”
more at: http://pefc.org/news-a-media/general-sfm-news/2307-the-pefc-family-continues-to-grow