The 2015 PEFC Forest Certification Week, which coincided with the World Climate Summit in Paris, saw a number of country’s officials get together to discuss goals for sustainable forestry management and award countries that showed progress in 2015.
The 2015 PEFC Forest Certification Week, which coincided with the World Climate Summit in Paris, saw a number of country’s officials get together to discuss goals for sustainable forestry management and award countries that showed progress in 2015.
On the minds of attendees was the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which outlines 17 UN goals to end poverty and achieve sustainable development in the next 15 years. Forestry will play a big role in achieving those goals, PEFC International CEO Ben Gunneberg told attendees at the PEFC general assembly that opened PEFC Forest Certification Week.
“Eighty percent of the world’s poorest live in and around forests, and we have a role to play to enable these communities to have sustainable livelihoods and pull them out of poverty in a way that no one has been able to do before,” he said. “Our work must go beyond forest management, we must put stronger emphasis on non-wood products, on trees outside forests, on a landscape approach. We need sustainable landscapes for sustainable livelihoods.”
As a grassroots organization devoted to forest certification and forest-dependent communities, PEFC can deliver on 14 of the 17 UN goals, Gunneberg said.
“One hundred million people are still without homes; 1 billion people are living in slums—the world needs more homes,” he said, referencing goal 11, sustainable cities and communities. “If you build a standard house from wood, it has 50 percent less greenhouse gas emissions throughout its lifetime than a house built from concrete. So what should we build these new homes from? Concrete or wood?”
During the remainder of the week, representatives from countries including Spain, South Korea and Philippines, among many others, spoke about the strength, commitment and dedication of PEFC to sustainable forest management and supply chains that address economic, social and environmental values.
Awards were also handed out. China was recognized for certifying the most forest acreage in 2015 among member countries. Sweden and Canada also received awards for showing the greatest growth in certified forest area—each increased their total area by more than a million hectares.
