After a rigorous evaluation of the Pan-African Forest Certification (PAFC) of Gabonese timber by the Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC) of The Netherlands, Gabonese timber has been given the go ahead to enter Holland.
The evaluation which was demanded by the government of Holland received the certification of TPAC in May this year and the decision has only just been communicated to the Gabonese authorities.
“The recognition of the conformity of products certified by PAFC Gabon after the exigencies of TPAC would offer through the PAFC Gabon an opening to the Netherlands market,” said Rose Ondo, president of PFAC Gabon.
“This evaluation has permitted the coming into the limelight of the solidity of PFAC Gabon,” Ondo added.
The Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC) of The Netherlands is made up of a committee whose mission is to evaluate the forestry certification systems in order to facilitate the involvement of the Netherlands government in the purchase of timber which is 100 per cent sustainable.
Besides a panoply of “timber purchase criteria developed with involved partners of The Netherlands, TPAC guarantees the transparency, viability and the verifiability of its evaluations thanks to distinct procedures”.
“The work of TPAC evaluators has enabled them to consult other evaluations made by independent international organisms, which demanded that the evaluation Certification Assessment Tool (CAT) made by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2019, according to them, does not reflect the rigour and the performance system of PAFC Gabon,”revealed Ondo.
“At the same time, TPAC has evaluated the exigencies of the international Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and it should be noted that just as PAFC Gabon, PEFC International has received the maximum score”, concluded the PAFC Gabon president.”
It would be recalled that PAFC Gabon was recognized by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification in 2009, thus permitting timber certified by PAFC Gabon to be internationally identified under the PEFC label and can be utilized by enterprises which have a PEFC control chain throughout the world, i.e. in Europe, America, China, India etc.
About 600,000 hectares of Gabonese forest have been certified by PAFC Gabon.
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