{"id":19568,"date":"2015-12-14T19:40:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T19:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/162.217.168.59\/?p=19568"},"modified":"2023-03-22T13:26:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T17:26:53","slug":"pefc-week-brings-international-partners-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forests.org\/fr\/pefc-week-brings-international-partners-together\/","title":{"rendered":"PEFC Week Brings International Partners Together to Address Sustainable Forestry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geneva, Switzerland; Washington D.C. <\/b>\u2014 Promoting sustainable forest management and having it recognized and rewarded in the supply chain from the local to the global level is a key priority shared by the many delegates who attended the 2015 PEFC Forest Certification Week last week in Montreux, Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International\u2019s CEO and Secretary General, <\/b>opened the 20th PEFC General Assembly with an empowering video and noted, \u201cAs a grassroots organization PEFC has an extremely important role to play in achieving the <\/b>Sustainable Development Goals <\/b><\/a>(SDGs), <\/b>as we can deliver 14 of the 17 UN goals on the ground through our work with forest certification and forest-dependent communities.\u201d The 17 goals are part of the United Nation\u2019s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015 to end poverty in order to achieve sustainable development.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to continue to grow a strong future for forests and the people that depend upon them, we must expand the reach and relevance of forest certification programs and better quantify and communicate the resulting positive conservation and community impacts,\u201d said Kathy Abusow, Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) President and CEO<\/b>. \u201cAs to expanding the reach and relevance, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Hans Drielsma, outgoing PEFC International Board member who had the vision to secure PEFC\u2019s entrance into Asia with the formation of PEFC Asia almost a decade ago. <\/b>This vision has now become a reality with unprecedented growth in the Chinese market, stability in the Japanese market, and a consistent flow of new members and interest from South East Asian nations to join the PEFC family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Hans Drielsma, who served on the PEFC International Board of Directors from 2006-2015 for three terms of service and chaired numerous standards review committees and working groups over the years, is a professional forester with 40 years\u2019 experience, including senior executive roles with Forestry Tasmania and State Forests NSW. The seeds that were planted with the formation of PEFC Asia, are now bearing fruit, and there were many examples of this during 2015 PEFC Week.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n