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PEFC Canada is the PEFC national member for Canada. There are two PEFC-endorsed forest management certification systems operational in Canada: the Canadian National Forest Management Standard (CSA Z809:2016 (R2021) Sustainable Forest Management Standard) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Forest Management standard.
The SFI forest certification system, as a regional North American system, is also operational in the USA. SFI is the PEFC national member for the USA. For SFI system information visit https://forests.org/
This standard lays out the requirements for chain of custody certification for forest and tree based products – the conditions a company must meet in order to achieve PEFC certification. During the certification process, the certification body will assess the company against the requirements set out in this document. If the company complies, they will receive their PEFC chain of custody certificate.
PEFC chain of custody establishes the link from the forest to the market, tracking forest and tree based products from sustainable sources to the final product. In addition, this standard includes management requirements, including on health, safety and labour issues.
In January 2020, PEFC published the latest versions of the PEFC Chain of Custody (ST 2002) and PEFC Trademarks (ST 2001) standards. These standards entered into force on 14 February 2020, with a 30-month transition period. This means that until 14 August 2022, there are two versions of the PEFC Chain of Custody standard: the latest version from 2020 and the older version from 2013. At this time, it is possible to be certified against either standard version. After this, companies still certified against the 2013 version will need to prepare their system according to the 2020 version, in preparation for certification against this version during their next external audit.
The standard covers the requirements that entities must follow when using the PEFC trademarks, in order to ensure accurate, verifiable, relevant and non-misleading use of the PEFC logo and related claims. It defines the legal protection of the PEFC trademarks; rights to use them; trademarks usage categories and the requirements for on- and off-product usage.
All entities, including PEFC-certified companies and forest owners, brand owners, NGOs and PEFC members, most follow these requirements whenever using the PEFC trademarks.
The revised 2020 version of this standard replaced the previous 2008 version on 14 February 2020. For organizations with a PEFC logo licence issued before the publication of this latest document, a 24 month transition period applies. The transition date is 14 August 2022.
This standard describes the requirements certification bodies must comply with in order to provide chain of custody certification, in addition to the accreditation requirements. It provides system specific requirements, and ensures that chain of custody audits take place consistently worldwide and are tailored to the specification of each PEFC chain of custody.
The revised 2020 version of this standard replaced the previous 2012 version on 14 February 2020. Certification bodies operating chain of custody certification against PEFC ST 2002 have until 14 August 2022 to transition to the latest standard.
Coming soon
Guidance documents, as the name suggests, provide additional guidance for users, listed below are the most commonly requested guidance documents. To access all our PEFC international standards and guides, please visit the PEFC resources section.
For up-to-date information on all PEFC events and training opportunities visit PEFC.ORG - Events & Training
For further information on how our standards are developed and further guidance on implementation of the PEFC standards, visit www.pefc.org.