Summary
• Ben Gunneberg began work as a forestry contractor.
• He became technical director at the Timber Growers Association.
• He was appointed secretary-general of the PEFC in 1999.
• He lives in France, near the Swiss border.
Too often timber traders assume that anybody in high office is almost certain to be a ‘policy wonk’, living and breathing by committee.
When they come from mainland Europe, the British fear of central control often kicks in too. So, how does Ben Gunneberg, the secretary-general of the world’s largest certification system, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), deal with these assumptions?
He starts by pointing out his British, or to be more precise, his Scottish roots. “Many people may be surprised, but my father was a Church of Scotland minister, so I’m actually a ‘son of the manse!’”
Beginnings
Ben also stresses that he has strong links with the timber industry, going back to his boyhood in Scotland.
“I started by climbing the hills near Crianlarich with a retired forester, who introduced me to his life’s work. I became determined to make this my career and began by working as a forestry contractor in various unskilled jobs, before going to Aberdeen University.”
Having completed and achieved a BSc in forestry, Ben became a member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters and subsequently completed an Open University MBA. “This led to working on the Private Woodlands Survey, at the University of Wales in Bangor where I was in touch with forest owners, helping enormously for my next role at the Timber Growers Association (TGA) in Edinburgh.”
As TGA technical director, Ben had the opportunity to associate with landowners and forestry organisations across the world. It was also an opportunity to put his fluent French and German to good use as the representative for forest owners in their efforts to achieve PEFC certification.
In 1999 he was appointed as secretary-general of what was then known as the Pan European Forestry Certification, based in Luxembourg. Since then he has seen the PEFC’s evolution to its current status as a truly global scheme with over 210 million ha of forest certified around the world.
Neutral territory
The organisation is now based in Geneva, sending a clear signal of its neutrality from any particular national influence.
And today, it continues to grow – although Ben admits it still has a long way to go.
“With only 25% of the world’s commercial timber currently certified, between ourselves and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and 91% of that in Europe and North America, we still have a huge job to do,” said Ben. “Forest certification needs to move beyond these familiar areas and promote sustainable forest management better in Asia, South America and Africa.”
Chain of custody (CoC), which acts as the audit trail from certified forests to the end user, is another major part of the PEFC’s work and to date 5,500 companies have achieved its CoC certification, with almost a fifth of them in the UK.
“We expect this figure to increase to 16,000 by 2017,” said Ben. “It is a crucial part of the whole system.”
During his time at the PEFC Ben has seen huge changes and confronted many difficult situations.
“Many NGOs have been suspicious of us, but we’ve been working hard to demonstrate that we deliver on our promises,” he said. “That the UK government’s Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET) has accepted us and all our endorsed national schemes unconditionally is helping in this process, nevertheless we are continuing to improve our scheme to meet stakeholder and customer expectations.”
Stakeholder involvement
The PEFC’s aim, he said, was to ensure that its systems are robust, while simplifying them to “allow for their widest possible adoption”.
“PEFC International reviews its documentation every five years and we have recently changed the voting within our organisation, so that one third of the votes go to our Stakeholder Forum which has been established to allow stakeholders, including NGOs, to better engage with PEFC.”
Working with all these people from different cultures and walks of life is clearly rewarding for Ben.
“The biggest thrill is seeing stakeholders at all levels putting their differences aside to work constructively to strengthen [forestry] governance structures, especially in developing countries,” he said. “Success will enhance the value of forests to society, especially in terms of tackling challenges such as climate change, and raise society’s respect for our profession. I’m proud of this vocation and want to see people succeeding within it.”
Sustainable forest management is clearly a passion for Ben and he believes the bigger picture is far more important than differences between various certification schemes.
“Our common objective is to promote sustainable forest management, and with only 9% of the world’s forests certified overall, PEFC and FSC need to work collaboratively to ensure the remaining 91% are managed sustainably.”
And he’s optimistic on this front, predicting that the global volume of certified industrial roundwood will double within 10 years.
Ben now lives in Thoiry in south-east France. It’s a beautiful forested area, he says, and while he has a busy schedule, he still finds time with his family to enjoy the pursuits there that launched him on his life’s work, skiing and walking in the countryside.
