Alphabet Soup, Part 24 of Many: MTCC, CERFLOR, AFS (PEFC Internationally)

We’ve been looking at some of the national standards under PEFC, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification. Last week we did North America and of course most of Europe will have system with "PEFC" in the name, so they are pretty easily identified. Some international operators that you should know and who don’t have PEFC in the name include:

CERFLOR: The Brazilian Forest Certification Program began in 1996. At the time of writing, there are 66 CoC certifications and 23 Forest Management certifications covering nearly 3 million hectares.

MTCC: Malaysian Timber Certification Council: Established in 1998, the MTCC developed the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS), which became the first tropical timber certification scheme in the Asia Pacific region endorsed by the PEFC.

The program has different standards for natural native forests and plantation forests.

AFS: The Australian Forestry Standard was established in 2002 to promote the sustainable management of Australia’s plantation and native forests. Their site emphasizes the national nature, stating, “These standards have been developed in Australia speci­ally to best suit Australian forests, the unique Australian environment, and to meet expectations of Australian society, including consideration for the concerns of rural communities.”

By the way, buried deep in the AFS site, I found the statistic that over 90 percent of the production forest area in Australia is now certified. Why that’s not on the top page in giant letters, I don’t know!!