Environment minister Elliot Morley said the reassessment by the Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET) found that not all PEFC national schemes had adopted changes made by the PEFC Council last year.
The government decided last August to accept PEFC as evidence of legal and sustainable timber on a probationary basis, as long as national schemes adopted the PEFC Council’s changes, which relate to involvement of environmental and social stakeholders in setting forest management standards.
Mr Morley said the review findings would be “scrutinised further” before PEFC’s probation status was resolved.
However, he said the government would in the meantime continue to accept PEFC as a source of legal and sustainable timber, and that suppliers could continue to offer PEFC timber as “legal and sustainable” in response to central government demand.
Defra procurement adviser Bob Andrew said: “We decided not to resolve it yet. We were not certain we fully appreciated and understood the nuances and complexities of the changes at a national level.”
PEFC’s probation status will form part of a summer review of all forest certification schemes first assessed by CPET in 2004.
