CeFCo project moves ahead in Portugal

12/10/2011

Following the success of Portugal’s first national workshop in June 2011 and given the increasing interest and importance of the project, planning for a second workshop is now underway. With the new EU timber legality regulation fast approaching, certification has never been more important in Europe.

More than 25 contractors, land owners and NGO representatives met in Lisbon for the first national workshop in Portugal, aimed at promoting the CeFCo project. It served to address important questions on costs, advantages of participation and requirements for certification under the pilot project.

At the event, Vera Santos, Director of FSC Portugal and representative of the CeFCo project in Portugal, announced the expansion of the project to include more field tests. Great interest has been expressed by forest contractors. The project partners invite small forest owners to register their interest as soon as possible.

FSC Portugal, NEPCon and National Association of Forestry, Agriculture and Environment (ANEFA, ENFE representative in Portugal) are the entities responsible for implementing CeFCo at the national level, and they are currently in the final stages of preparing the reference standard to be used.

The audits will be carried out by NEPCon, involving a free pre-assessment that will result in a comprehensive report detailing the areas that need improvement in order to obtain certification. When the organisation is ready, a full assessment will verify all the certification standards are met.

Successful certification will provide forest owners an FSC forest management certificate, which may be supplemented with a PEFC certificate, while forest contractors will receive a SmartLogging certificate.

> Learn more about the project in Portugal