PEFC and AKCG – Sustainable Forestry: Never More Important, Never More Difficult

LONDON, England and GENEVA, Switzerland – What do you do when you’ve already certified the ‘easy’ 300 million hectares of the world’s forests – 10% of the planet’s entire covered area – but the remaining 90% is in countries without functioning governments, at war, suffering from extreme poverty, under attack by changing climate, or worth more burned down than standing?  AKCG is helping PEFC to build a five-year strategy to solve one of the most wicked problems in the world.

Geneva-based PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) is the largest international organisation for sustainable forestry, representing 49 countries and certifying the chain of custody for over 18,000 of the world’s largest companies in the paper, pulp and timber industries.  It’s Geneva-based Secretariat is responsible for developing, maintaining and applying a rigorous set of criteria against national forestry standards in order to ensure that they ensure responsible management of local forest resources.

Demand for wood-based products has grown dramatically in the past twenty years, while at the same time climate change has emerged as the greatest threat to civilisation in the planet’s history.  With global forests’ capacity to safely absorb and store carbon dioxide, the environmental case for their protection has never been stronger.  But that protection is dependent upon national agencies responsible for resource management, most of whom are under-funded, technically-insufficient, and at the mercy of forces at work in their countries far beyond their control.

For the third time in ten years, AKCGlobal is working with PEFC’s Secretary-General, Ben Gunneberg, and the organisation’s international Board of Directors to craft its strategic plan to accomplish five ambitious goals:

• Further serve their Members’ environmental and economic interests;
• Promotes PEFC in the centre of climate change efforts;
• Increase the use of the PEFC standard and chain-of-custody tools by industry and consumers;
• Diversify funding to include bilateral and multilateral donors (including the EU, DFID, USAID, GIZ); and
• Build the internal capacity to deliver technical assistance to existing and new Members who need support to meet the rigorous PEFC standard.

For more information about PEFC and other wicked projects, contact us at: [email protected]