Certification visit well packaged for PEFC Chief
Facts and figures
More than 16m hectares of Australian forests are certified under the Responsible Wood forest certification scheme – this represents more than 90% of Australia’s commercial forests. Our stats at a glance
Our work is made possible by the voluntary engagement of countless stakeholders at local and national level around the world, who support its ongoing efforts to expand certification and sustainable forest management beyond the current 9% of global forest area.
Quick Facts
Over 320 million hectares of forest area (or 790 million acres) are managed in compliance with PEFC’s internationally accepted Sustainability Benchmarks – that’s roughly the size of Egypt, South Africa and Turkey combined. Three-quarters (75%) of all certified forests globally are certified to PEFC*. See the latest PEFC statistics.
PEFC certification provides assurance that forests are managed in line with challenging environmental, social and economic requirements. It is crucial in giving evidence of sustainable forest management, enabling forest owners and managers to demonstrate that the practices they apply in the forest are sustainable and that their forests meet our needs and those of future generations.
Currently more than 20,000 companies and organisations have achieved PEFC chain of custody certification. That equals one-third of all chains of custody globally, and you can find these companies in more than 70 countries. See the latest PEFC statistics.
PEFC chain of custody certification tracks forest-based products from sustainable sources to the final product. It demonstrates that each step of the supply chain is closely monitored through independent auditing to ensure that unsustainable sources are excluded.
55 national members, with 48 endorsed national certification systems, have joined forces under the PEFC umbrella to collaboratively promote sustainable forest management. Through our projects and partnerships around the world, we work to increase this number, bringing sustainable forest management and certification to more countries and to more forest owners, large and small.
PEFC certification is a standard of choice for public timber procurement policies in e.g. the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, in addition to numerous private timber procurement policies. PEFC certification also demonstrates compliance with legislative requirements, including the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), the U.S. Lacey Act, and the Australian Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation.
PEFC certification per country and over time
The interactive document below displays the area of PEFC-certified forests and the number of companies holding a PEFC chain of custody certificate by country, as well as the development over time.
The report consists of five pages that can be navigated in the bottom left corner. The reporting date, continent and country can be changed in the respective drop-down menu on each page.
The national coverage represents the ratio of PEFC-certified forest area over the FAO area estimation by country. FAO updates these estimations every year. In this report, for the current year, the FAO area estimation from the previous year is used for reference.
The PEFC data was initially reported at a yearly frequency. For the past years it has been reported on a quarterly basis. Areas are distorted on the map due to the Mercator projection.
Double certification
Based on joint research, PEFC and FSC concluded that in mid-2020, approximately 95 million hectares of global forest area were double certified (an increase of 3% since mid-2019).
Please note that the data include only the forest area certified by FSC or PEFC-endorsed systems from 2016 to 2020, excluding any other schemes. The list includes only countries where forest area is certified under both schemes and the data should be regarded as best estimates.
*This is an estimation, based on the PEFC and FSC figures
