January 23, 2024
(press release)
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23 January 2024 PEFC system news PEFC has 25 years of experience in enabling dialogue on sustainable forest management. We meet the challenge of EUDR no differently: bringing different experts and stakeholders together, building consensus, and providing a solution to the market that gives flexibility and responds to the needs of our stakeholders. We have put in place a cross-functional plan to cover the different aspects within EUDR. Aligned to our inclusive dialogue and bottom-up approach, PEFC members and external experts are participating in working groups and task forces to develop our PEFC EUDR solution for the market. To help our PEFC chain of custody certified organisations comply with their EUDR obligations, we are developing an EUDR adapted DDS (due diligence system). This voluntary tool will be compatible with the main PEFC DDS in our Chain of Custody standard (ST 2002) and limited to forest and tree-based products. Companies will be able to decide whether they implement the ST 2002 chain of custody DDS or replace it with the EUDR adapted DDS. Importantly, the EUDR adapted DDS will go further than EUDR alignment, to also cover our controversial sources definition. Finally, the new DDS will not be a legal compliant mechanism, but a tool companies can implement for this purpose. Responsibility to comply with EUDR still remains fully with the company. Data, and data privacy and security, form a vital element of the EUDR. Presently there are a range of options available for PEFC, but we are waiting on more information from the EU before any firm proposals can be formulated. Discussion points have included the practical challenges of gathering and maintaining plot of land geolocation data, and the more complex topic of logging areas and dates or date ranges of harvesting. Certified organisations and PEFC members can expect to receive guidance on how best to approach the data issues for EUDR compliance, including, where appropriate, suggested standardised methods for obtaining, storing, and presenting the necessary data. There is currently a call for nominations for candidates for the permanent PEFC Sustainable Forest Management Working Group (SFM WG). This working group is responsible for identifying and validating the gaps between the PEFC Sustainable Forest Management standard (ST 1003) and the EUDR requirements, developing technical proposals for meeting these requirements, as well as to establish and coordinate the work of the Task Forces under the SFM WG. To nominate a candidate to participate in the working group, please fill out the nomination form. The nomination deadline is 31 January 2024. To find out more about how PEFC is your partner for EUDR, please visit our PEFC EUDR website. If you have any questions or queries regarding PEFC and our alignment with EUDR, please contact us at eudr@pefc.org. PEFC chain of custody
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