26 May 2008

China National Forestry Certification Center to open

China National Forestry Certification Center is expected to open in 2008 and will provide national certification to the China forest and wood production industry. The center will promote a national scheme called China Forestry Certification, which will set a forest management standard and a chain of custody standard. The certification standards were drafted by the Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF) and draws from other international systems such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Pan-European Forest Certification and others. Mr. Xu, the Director of the Research and Promotion Center of Forest Certification in the CAF said that the costs of the Chinese certification system are lower than FSC’s, but he recognized the difficulty the system would face since it was not yet recognized in international markets. The SFA is working on a scheme to promote the national certification standards in the international markets.