NCCF Review Meeting; Noida, 12th February, 2020

A review meeting of the Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF) was held on 12th February 2020 in NCCF Office, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Vijai Sharma, Chairman. Mr. AK Srivastava, DG, NCCF, Mr. Sachin Jain, Convener, NCCF and Chairpersons of Standard Development Groups, Sri A.K. Varma, Sri A.K. Bansal and Dr. Devendra Pandey had attended the meeting. Mr. Anil Jauhri, ex CEO, NABCB also attended the meeting as a special invitee.

Key action points discussed in the meeting that need to be addressed on priority basis are as under:

· Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation (UPFC) has taken the lead to get NCCF’s first certificate for Forest Management Certification, involving 13 forest divisions with an area of around 3.5 lakh hectares. UPFC has shown the way to other State Forest Departments, State Forest development corporations and Forest enterprises to opt for this kind of certification. UPFC is also contemplating to take certification of 28 plantation divisions in UP. It was informed that NCCF would like to organise a small event at Lucknow, UP to celebrate the award of this certificate to UPFC, wherein Hon’ble Forest Minister; Principal Secretary, Forests; PCCF & HoFF; senior functionaries of the Forest Department and the Corporation, representatives from the relevant government departments, members from industry and civil society, etc. would be invited to attend.

· NCCF should develop and implement a marketing strategy for Forest Management and ToF Certification. IIM, Ahmedabad could also be involved in developing the marketing strategy for implementation of Carbon Registry-India and also for NCCF Forest Management and Trees outside Forest.

· Chairperson of the various Standard Development Groups should continue their engagement in the necessary outreach and implementation of the Standards.

· It was informed that IKEA, a multinational retailer was accepting only FSC certified material in India and not PEFC certified. A direct dialogue with IKEA over NCCF-PEFC Certification would also be initiated. Also, the matter may be taken up with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPI&IT) and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.

· Implementation trial on Tree outside Forest Standard (ToF) will be conducted at Sitapur (UP) in collaboration with UPFC, in Jammu and Kashmir with Hindustan Pencils and in Nagaland with Greenply Industries Limited. World Agroforestry (ICRAF) should be invited to observe the field implementation trials.

· Set up 2-tier certification advisory committee for guidance in accreditation requirement of NCCF standards.

· NCCF should participate in the following upcoming events:

o The Adaptation Futures 2020 being hosted by the World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP) and TERI in Delhi from April 27-30, 2020.

o TERI’s World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) 2021

o IUCN World Conservation Congress being hosted by France from 11 to 19 June at Parc Chanot in Marseille

 

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