Consultancy firm ITS Global has been appointed as the PEFC council assessor and will spend the coming months comparing ATFS against the benchmark criteria needed to gain PEFC endorsement.
And Ben Gunneberg, PEFC council general-secretary, has said that this, coupled with the public consultation, will help ensure the certification scheme maintains “high and stringent quality”.
“The public consultation starts today and we invite everyone to send comments by August 9,” said Mr Gunneberg.
“The independent assessment prior to any PEFC endorsement ensures that a consistently high and stringent quality and performance level is applied by all PEFC endorsed certification systems globally.”
ATFS is the oldest and largest voluntary third party verification process in the US, with 87,000 private forest owners, who control a total of 23 million acres of woodland, adopting the system since it was launched in 1941.
