90 per cent of Australian commercial forests are now PEFC certified

Above: PEFC International Chairman Peter Latham OBE and PEFC International Ben Gunneberg recognise Responsible Wood Chair Dr Hans Drielsma AM at the PEFC General Assembly in Wurzburg Germany.

Nov 14, 2019, WURZBURG, GERMANY: Responsible Wood continues to grow from strength to strength, with the growth of the Australian scheme recognised during the PEFC (Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification) General Assembly.

Meeting in Wurzburg, Germany, the birthplace of the PEFC icon, the PEFC Family gathered to celebrate 20 years of PEFC, the world’s largest forest certification scheme.

And for Responsible Wood, Australia’s largest forest certification scheme, the anniversary marks an important milestone in the development of global sustainable forest management standards.

Speaking from the PEFC General Assembly sidelines, Responsible Wood CEO Simon Dorries reflected on the important role the Australian scheme has played in growing the scheme.

‘Responsible Wood, then the Australian Forestry Standard, and ‘CERTFOR’ in Chile, were the first forest certification schemes outside of Europe mutually recognised and internationally endorsed by PEFC International.’

‘This marked an incredibly important milestone and, from 2004 onwards, the PEFC Family has grown globally with many countries joining the PEFC alliance,’ said Mr Dorries.

Today, PEFC has more than 310 million hectares of global forest area under certification with more than 11.5 million hectares of defined forest area in Australia alone.

‘In Australia, more than 90% of all commercial forest area is covered by Responsible Wood certification, a combination of native forest and plantation forests. Responsible Wood is recognised as an important trust mark for sustainable forest management,’ Mr Dorries said.

Responsible Wood is recognised and internationally endorsed by PEFC and is the Australian National Governing Body for PEFC in Australia.

Responsible Wood manages the Australian Standard for Sustainable Forest Management (AS 4708) and the Australian Standard for Chain of Custody for Forest Products (AS 4707) and is licensed by Standards Australia as a ‘Standards Development Organisation’.

For more information about Responsible Wood please visit the Responsible Wood website.

For more information about PEFC forest certification please visit the PEFC International website.