Increasing certified forest product trade flows from Asia to Europe

With much tropical timber being processed in Asia and additional certified sources coming online in 2016-2017, capacity development is required throughout the manufacturing sector to ensure certified products can be delivered to EU markets.   PEFC’s STTC project therefor focuses on addressing critical bottlenecks within Asian nodes of EU facing supply chains.  This will immediately enable more certified products to reach EU markets and build important capacity as new certified forest sources become available in the region and globally.

Key objectives of the project are to:

1. Raise awareness on sustainable production and trade through the forest sector industry in Asia
2. Build capacity amongst private sector actors to implement Chain of Custody and achieve certification
3. Promote certified products on EU markets

To achieve these objectives PEFC organizes and participates in a wide range of events across the region and deliver regular industry communication campaigns to raise awareness.  We run training seminars for auditors & companies on Chain of Custody to build strong technical capacity in the region. In 2016, we opened a PEFC Support desk at the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association (HAWA) office in Ho Chi Minh City. This office is a resource center for the wood product industries in Vietnam. Companies are welcome to visit to discuss any issue related to forest certification and to access technical support on PEFC Chain of Custody certification and related matters.

Elsewhere in Asia, PEFC is present through our PEFC China Initiative office in Beijing and PEFC member organizations in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea and Thailand.

More information about PEFC international’s Asia Promotions Initiative is available here:   https://pefc.org/projects/markets/asia-promotions-initiative