Guyana to develop National Forest Certification programme

-in break from decades-old relationship with FSC

Guyana is to develop its own national forest certification scheme, a break from a decadeslong relationship with the topranked Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

A release from the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) yesterday said that Guyana will now seek certification under the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) Council which is an alternative to the FSC.

The switch to a national programme for blessing by the PEFC appears to have been fuelled by FSC standards in the past which have snagged greenheart exports and also tougher requirements to enter the European Union market under its Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) programme.

The GFC said that a diverse group of stakeholders from government agencies, forest sector operators, indigenous non-governmental organisations, environmental non-governmental organisations, civil society, including women, youths, and forest workers representatives had agreed to the national programme for certification by PEFC.

It said that the decision for a national system was endorsed at a “broad stakeholder meeting” held in March this year.

The GFC said that PEFC is a leading global alliance promoting sustainable forest management through forest certification and labelling of forest-based products and is one of the two globally recognised forest management and wood products certification systems. The other being the FSC. The GFC said that currently, there are 750,000 forests owners, covering a total of 330 million hectares of forests, who are certified globally under PEFC.

The GFC said it is currently establishing a PEFC secretariat within the Commission to manage the standard development process.

The release noted that many tropical timber-producing countries including, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Ghana (who have signed a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union (EU) similar to Guyana), have developed and implemented PEFCendorsed national certification systems, or are in the process of developing their national systems for PEFC endorsement.

The GFC said that consultations on developing the standards for the national certification system included participants from civil society bodies including the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association, the private sector, academia and government ministries and agencies.

At that meeting, the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat who delivered the keynote address, explained the benefits of creating a PEFCendorsed national forest certification system for Guyana. At the conclusion of his address, he asked the stakeholders to consider whether they supported creating the standard and certification system. The stakeholders agreed primarily since the PEFCendorsed system utilises several features.

It uses a ‘bottom up’ approach that focuses on meeting the expectations of affected and interested local stakeholders on the ground, as well as stakeholders being able to influence the implementation of the Standard. It also takes into account local conditions and is consistent with national laws and regulations, all within a framework of key internationally recognised sustainability benchmarks.

In opting for the PEFC approach, stakeholders have agreed to develop Guyana’s national forest certification system using an open, transparent, consultative, and consensusbased process that includes a broad range of stakeholders, similar to the VPA negotiation process.

The standard development process, the GFC said, will draw largely on the work already completed as part of the Guyana/EU VPA process, under the EU’s FLEGT programme, which Guyana successfully initialled in 2018.

And given that both the VPA and PEFC processes emphasise a

‘bottom-up’ approach with significant involvement of forest stakeholders, the national system will complement as well as synergise with the FLEGT programme in Guyana. The intended PEFC-endorsed national standard and certification system will be available voluntarily to a forest sector operator who chooses to take advantage of it. However, it will not replace or compete with the FLEGT licencing scheme under the VPA FLEGT programme when completed and implemented.

According to the GFC, the PEFC approach will also present an opportunity to develop a globally recognised certification system that is genuinely reflective of Guyana’s forest management situation’s uniqueness, and the needs and expectations of the Guyanese people.

The Guyana National Forest Management Standard will cover forest management on all land tenures where forest management for commercial purposes is permitted by law in Guyana. In addition, it entails both individual forest management organisations and potential group schemes involving multiple forest management entities (in accordance with group certification procedures to be developed as part of the System) and will include timber products as well as non-timber forest products.

An independent third-party certification like the PEFC, will support Guyanese forest operators to demonstrate their legality and sustainability credentials credibly against internationally recognised benchmarks efficiently and cost-effectively to the global markets, the release added.