News and Events-Philippine Forest Certification System’s National Governing Board Holds Second Meeting

Philippine Forest Certification System’s National Governing Board Holds Second Meeting

The Philippine Forest Certification System’s (PFCS) National Governing Board (NGB) had their second meeting last September 2, 2016 at the Forest Management Bureau (FMB) in Quezon City.

It was chaired by Society of Filipino Foresters, Inc. (SFFI) national council president Tommy Valdez, and co-chaired by FMB director Ricardo Calderon.

Valdez shared with the board the results of the Policy Forum on the Forest Certification System held last August 25, 2016. He said that Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Marlo Mendoza shared that forest certification is one of the priorities of new DENR Secretary Gina Lopez.

Another highlight of the forum was the signing of Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on technical assistance for the Capacity Building on the Establishment of Forest Certification by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and the Philippine Center for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development, Inc. (PCEPSDI).

During the meeting, it was agreed that an executive order and a joint department administrative order from the DENR and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) be prepared for the implementation of the PFCS.

The different collaborative projects were presented to the board which included, among others, the different project proposals that will be submitted to financial institutions to fund the implementation of the different projects related to forest certification.

Some of the collaborative projects that were identified were Capacity Building on the Forest Certification Scheme and Sustainable Forest Management (SFM); Facilitation on the establishment of the Institutional Framework of PFCS; Technical Assistance for the Development of Standards and Procedures for the PFCS; a pilot project for group forest certification.

The different proposals that will be submitted to the Food and Agriculture Organization, and other funding institutions are as follows: Capacity Building for Philippine Wood Producers Association’s (PWPA) small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) on implementing Forest Certification and its Legality Framework; Capacity Building for CARAGA SME’s and Tree Growers for Timber Legality and Forestry Certification; Technical Infrastructure Support for the Implementation of the National Chain of Custody through PFCS; and Capacity Building for DTI (Philippine Accreditation Bureau and Bureau of Product Standards) on Forest Certification and for the National Governing Board on Developing National Standards and Certification.

It was also agreed that PCEPSDI will help in drafting the proposals.

Project timelines and budgets were also discussed with most of the projects having a time frame of twelve months, and estimated project costs totaled up to Php. 3.7 million.