Development of the PEFC National Standard for Turkey

 

Following international commitments for the sustainable use of natural resources initiated at the 1992 Rio Summit; Association for Sustainable Forest Management, Forest Products and Services Certification (SOYDER), which aims to implement the Sustainable Forest Management Criteria (SFM) accepted in Forest Europe due to the increasing concern of the society about the negative effects of climate change and environmental protection requirements announces that starting the process of developing criteria and indicators for SOY according to the PEFC requirements.

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SOYDER, the National Governing Body (NGB) of the PEFC(Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification) forest certification system in Turkey, is starting to develop a PEFC national forest certification system that will include national standards for Sustainable Forest Management(SFM). PEFC is the world's largest forest certification system. More than 300 million hectares of forest and more than 750,000 forest owners have been certified under this system.

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In Turkey, the national standard for SFM will be in compliance with the international standard PEFC 1003: 2018 as well as the current legal framework for forest management in the country.

 

Adoption of the national standard will be carried out according to the following stages:

 

• Determination of stakeholder list

• Disclosure of the process to the public

• Invite stakeholders to be involved in the process

• Determining the composition of the working group

• Organizing workshops for discussion on the proposed draft standard for SFM

• Reviewing and revising the opinions and suggestions received about the content of the draft standard for SFM by the working group (60 days)

• Working group review (30 days) of new opinions and proposals on the revised draft standard for SFM

• Agreeing on the content of the SFM standard developed by the working group

• Acceptance of SFM standard by SOYDER

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It is aimed that the process of submitting the SFM standard to the PEFC Council for approval will continue until the end of 2022, and by this date, the evaluation and consultation process required for the approval of the national standard in the PEFC Council is completed.

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Although the preparation of the standard is a process open to the public, the standard-setting rules and procedures will also be shared according to the rules and methods explained. Related procedures are published on the website: https://www.pefcturkiye.org

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Questions and comments about the content of standard-setting rules and procedures or the process itself can be sent by email: info@pefcturkiye.org or

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For this purpose, SOYDER invites the representatives of valuable stakeholders to participate in the preparation process of the national SFM standard by nominating the working group. Nominations of representatives of the members of the working group will be accepted until (four weeks after the announcement).

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The working group is approved by SOYDER on the basis of the nominations received and the profiles of the candidates, in accordance with the principles set forth in the standard setting rules and procedures.

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The working group's work on the adoption of the SOY draft standard is expected to be completed in about three months. Meetings will be held until the content of the standard is accepted by the working group, and the content of the standard can be realistically discussed and adopted.