With the awareness that our planet offers a limited amount of resources, an increasing number of conscientious consumers seek evidence of environmentally responsible business practices and therefore demand assurances or confirmations from processing industries that raw materials come from sustainably managed sources.

To this end, the PEFC™ Council (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes), an independent, non-profit organization founded in 1999 to promote sustainable forest management, has established a certification system that guarantees the origin of wood raw material, excluding timber from controversial sources.

This mechanism, known as the “chain of custody certification,” allows for a documented link between the raw material contained in a forest-based product and the origin of that material, granting environmental credits to the purchasers.

The PEFC™ certification scheme is based on the Pan-European criteria, indicators, and operational guidelines for sustainable forest management, developed by the European Union through a process initiated at the Ministerial Conference in Helsinki in 1993 and continued in Lisbon in 1998, with the participation of ministers responsible for forestry from the member states.

The six PEFC Guiding Criteria are:

1. Maintenance and appropriate enhancement of forest resources and their contribution to the global carbon cycle;
2. Maintenance of the health and vitality of forest ecosystems;
3. Maintenance and development of productive functions in forest management (both timber and non-timber products);
4. Maintenance, conservation, and appropriate enhancement of biological diversity in forest ecosystems;
5. Maintenance and appropriate enhancement of protective functions in forest management (with specific attention to soil protection and water regulation);
6. Maintenance of other functions and socio-economic conditions.