PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON STANDARDS PAFC CONGO BASIN

DEVELOPMENT AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF A PAFC CERTIFICATION SYSTEM FOR THE CONGO BASIN: THE FIRST PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON FOREST MANAGEMENT AND CHAIN OF CUSTODY CERTIFICATION STANDARDS WILL BE OPEN TOMORROW FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2019!!!

At the end of the first regional workshop on elaboration of the PAFC CB certification standards held in Libreville from 25 to 29 November, the members of the Forum, after exchanges and debates, consensually agreed on the first versions of the sustainable forest management and chain of custody standards. The proceedings of this workshop will soon be available and the press release is available here.

The process of developing these standards includes two public consultations to gather stakeholder comments and propositions on standards versions submitted to public consultation for possible adjustment by Forum members.

This first public consultation will be open for a period of 63 days from tomorrow Friday December 13, 2019 and will be closed on Friday, February 14, 2020. The public consultation is open to all stakeholders of forest management in the Congo Basin interested in participating to the PAFC CB certification standards development process.

Forest management stakeholders in the Congo Basin are therefore invited to comment on the sustainable forest management standard available here and on the chain of custody standard available here. The paper versions of the two standards can also be obtained on request from national PAFCs in Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville and Gabon.

It should be noted that indicator 7.3.2 of the sustainable forest management standard has not been validated due to lack of consensus among Forum members. They will review it after the public consultations, taking into account the comments made by the stakeholders.

Comments should be made on the feedback form available here.

For each commented requirement (indicator), the number and the text of the comment subject indicator should be reported, the comment(s) and the improvement proposition(s) will be written in the corresponding columns of the feedback form in Excel sheet named « indicators ».

As regards the comments on the annexes of the two standards submitted for public consultation, the page number of the text subject of the comment should be indicated, write the comment(s) and the improvement proposition(s) in the corresponding columns of the feedback form in Excel sheet named « annexes ».

The completed feedback form must be sent to the following email address: coordination@pafc-certification.org .

An acknowledgment of receipt will be sent to confirm that your comments have been received. After 72 hours, if you have not received an acknowledgment email, please report it to the email address coordination@pafc-certification.org

For more information on the process of developing the PAFC CB certification standards, consult the procedure for developing these standards here. The treatment of the comments received from the stakeholders at the end of the call for expression of interest will soon be available.