PEFC commenced international public consultation for endorsement of NCCF Trees outside Forests Certification Standard
The Programme for the Endorsement on Forest Certification (PEFC), the world’s largest forest certification organization, has commenced the process of endorsement of NCCF’s Trees outside Forest Certification Standard by launching an international public consultation webinar on 27th September 2021. This 60 days’ Public consultation will run until 25 November 2021.
Mr. Hubert Inhaizer initiated the webinar with a brief introduction about the working of PEFC and explained the endorsement process. Mr. A.K. Srivastava, Director General, NCCF in his opening remarks, thanked the PEFC for initiating the process of endorsement and highlighted the huge potential of ToF Standard in augmenting the availability of certified raw material for the wood sector industries.
Dr. Devendra Pandey, Chairperson, Standard Development Group, ToF Standard presented a detailed overview of the Standard Setting Process followed while developing the Standard and explained the unique features of the Standard, which is country-specific and internationally benchmarked.
Mr. A.K. Bansal, Chairperson, NCCF’s Promotions, Communications and Advocacy Group and the Standard Development Group, Non-Wood Forest Resources, presented the Risk Assessment Tool that has been developed to simplify and facilitate certification of trees outside forests for specific areas and single tree species within a State/Union Territory.
NCCF’s ToF scheme is unique in this part of the world and its endorsement by PEFC will certainly bring much-needed recognition to the wood sector by promoting sustainability of ToF resources, enhancing the income of the tree growers, and ensuring better markets and price premiums for the certified products. The stakeholders are actively looking for PEFC’s endorsement for early operationalization of the scheme.
The meeting recording is published on PEFC’s YouTube channel at the link:
To learn more about this significant scheme, click here.
During the sixty days of public consultation, the stakeholders from across the world can give their comments and provide feedback on various / any aspect(s) of the ToF Standard. The deadline for comments is 25 November 2021. Give your feedback now!