Short History
PEFC was launched on the 30th June 1999 in Paris by representatives of eleven officially constituted national PEFC governing bodies with the support of associations representing some 15 million woodland owners in Europe and of many international forest industry and trade organizations.
Since its launch, its membership has increased - currently 34 member countries- and broadening; it has become the largest forest certification umbrella organisation covering national schemes from all over the world - Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Oceania- delivering hundreds of millions of tonnes of wood to the processing industry.
| The Name Of An Era | Some Milestones |
|---|---|
| June 30th, 1999 | PEFC is launched by representatives from 11 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland. |
| May 24th, 2000 | First schemes endorsed by PEFC: The Finnish Forest Certification scheme, the Living Standards and Norwegian Forest Certification Scheme, and the Swedish PEFC certification scheme. |
| July 31st, 2000 | German Forest Scheme endorsed. |
| September 6th, 2000 | The Austrian Scheme is endorsed. This takes the number of PEFC certified hectares of forests to 23.5 million. |
| October 13rd, 2000 | First PEFC logo licences issued. |
| January 26th, 2000 | General Assembly in Luxembourg welcomes UK membership. |
| July, 2001 | General Assembly in Santiago de Compostella (Spain) welcomes Italy and its first two non-European members: Canada and USA. French and Latvian schemes endorsed. |
| August, 2001 | Czech scheme is endorsed. |
| October, 2001 | Swiss Q Label Holz Scheme is endorsed. |
| February, 2002 | World's first Interactive Database on Forest Certification is launched on the web which allows customers to gain valuable information on the origins of the timber they are buying and which carries a PEFC logo.Belgian Forest certification scheme endorsed.UK certification scheme for sustainable forest management endorsed. |
| May or June, 2002 | Spanish scheme endorsed. |
| August, 2002 | Danish scheme endorsed. This brings the number of independant national forest schemes to 13. |
| November 22nd, 2002 | General Assembly in Luxembourg welcomes the following new members: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Estonia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Slovak Republic. |
| September, 2003 | 48.6 million hectares are now PEFC certified. |
| October, 2003 | Assessment process on Italian and Chilean forest certification schemes commences. |
| November, 2003 | PEFC opens new PEFC Asia Promotions Office in Tokyo, Japan. |
| October, 2004 | Russia becomes a member of the PEFC Council. Australian, Italian and Chilean schemes are endorsed. |
| December, 2004 | Gabon becomes the first African member of the PEFC Council. Portuguese forest certification system endorsed. 55 million hectares certified by PEFC endorsed certification systems worldwide. |
| March, 2005 | Canadian certification system endorsed. PEFC now has more than 100 million hectares of certified forests from endorsed certification schemes worldwide and is the first international system ever to reach this milestone. Slovenia becomes the 30th member of PEFC Council. |
| August, 2005 | Luxembourg and the Slovak Republic gain PEFC endorsement. |
| October, 2005 | Brazil gains PEFC endorsement. Belarus becomes a member of the PEFC Council. |
| December, 2005 | North American SFI system endorsed. More than 187 million hectares of forests are certified by PEFC endorsed certification systems globally. |
| March, 2006 | Increased PEFC activities in Asia. First PEFC Chain of Custody certificate awarded in China. |
| September, 2006 | First PEFC CoC certification in Africa. (Morocco) |
| October, 2006 | Russian national forest certification initiatives merge under PEFC. |
| November, 2006 | PEFC launches its new mandatory guide for the Avoidance of Timber from Controversial Sources. |
| December, 2006 | More than 193 million hectares of forest around the world are certified under PEFC. |
| April, 2007 | PEFC opens new PEFC China office in Beijing. |
| July, 2007 | 200 million hectares of production forests under independently certified sustainable management. PEFC is the first-ever organisation to achieve this milestone for the production and sustainable management of the world's forests. |
| August, 2007 | Slovenia achieves PEFC endorsement. |
| October, 2007 | PEFC Council adopts its new 5 years strategic plan. Uruguay becomes a member of the PEFC Coucil. Cameroon becomes a member of the PEFC Council. |
| February, 2008 | Estonia and Poland achieve PEFC endorsement. |
