The two big players in timber and forestry certification set out their stalls at separate events in London last week. And the functions highlighted that the Forest Stewardship Council and Pan European Forest Certification scheme still differ over mutual recognition.
The FSC was the focus of a reception for the ‘international forestry trade’ hosted by Prince Charles at St James Palace.
The Prince paid tribute to the World Wide Fund for Nature for its role in developing the FSC and seemed to follow the latter’s line that the market was better off with a single certification scheme. He told the audience: ‘I do hope you will find a way to stick to a simple message, single universal labels, one set of standards and transparent procedures – anything else will be disastrous.’
Meanwhile at a seminar at the Royal Society of Arts hosted by the Finnish Forest Industries Federation, PEFC Council secretary-general Ben Gunneberg discussed his organisation’s progress.
He emphasised the importance of mutual recognition of independent certification schemes. ‘When you have different processes there is competition. That’s a good thing,’ he said.
Vice-chairman of the PEFC Council Hannu Valtanen commented: ‘The industry is not very much in favour of a single issue label.’
A total of 21 million ha in 35 countries are certified to FSC rules while there are 32 million ha certified to PEFC standards.
