With an increase of almost two million hectares of PEFC-certified forests in Indonesia over the past year, the Indonesian Forestry Certification Cooperation (IFCC) took top prize for growth at the PEFC Forest Certification Week award ceremony.
“Without the tremendous support from everyone within the PEFC family and without the strong commitment and hard work from all members of the IFCC family, we would have never arrived here,” said Dradjad Wibowo, chairman of the IFCC.
“IFCC thanks everyone from the PEFC and IFCC families for this! Although we still face huge challenges, we are confident, that together we will prevail.”
Ben Gunnenberg, CEO of PEFC International, said, “IFCC only achieved their first certified hectares at the end of 2015, so it’s fantastic to see them win first place just two years later.
“We should soon see even more certified hectares in Indonesia, but this time from community-owned forests, as IFCC’s new requirements for community forest management certification come into force.”
PEFC Finland came in second place with an increase of 1.3 million hectares followed by PEFC Russia with 950,000 hectares.
The top three members that have grown their Chain of Custody certificates were also honoured at the event. This year’s top prize went to the Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council (SGEC) in Japan, which added 117 Chain of Custody certificates. In second place was PEFC Spain, followed by PEFC Czech Republic.
Mr Gunnenberg said, “I would like to congratulate all our members who took home an award today. It is thanks to their, and everyone else within the PEFC alliance’s, continued work and dedication that PEFC continues to be the world’s leading forest certification system.”
