Steve Germishuizen (centre) receiving the SAFAS endorsement certificate from Peter Latham (Chairman of the PEFC Board) and Ben Gunneberg (CEO and Secretary General of PEFC) at the recent General Assembly meeting in Switzerland.

The Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) has announced its endorsement of the South African Forestry Accreditation Scheme (SAFAS), a local initiative that seeks to make forest certification more accessible to small timber growers.

As the demand for sustainably produced and certified forest products increases, both abroad and locally, certification is becoming a trade barrier to smaller forestry units and emerging timber growers.

“It is these farmers that most need support, access to markets and development to ensure a vibrant sustainable forest industry that promotes social development in poor rural areas,” notes Craig Norris, SANAS national governing body member and forest technology manager for NCT Forestry.

In South Africa, about 80% of the plantation area has been certified to the generic international Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards. “While these standards are internationally recognised and generic, they are also expensive and not well suited to small timber growers, which means that only large organisations tend to certify their plantations,” explained Craig.

According to Michael Peter, executive director of Forestry South Africa, the sector comprises around 20,000 small growers as well as 1,300 medium sized commercial growers and 11 large corporate growers. “As the SAFAS standard is home grown, directly relevant to a range of South African conditions and more flexible with respect to group schemes, we hope that this move will facilitate the full involvement of small growers and improve the sustainability of the forestry industry.”

Michael added that it also gives South Africa an alternative certification scheme in which we have far more ownership and control. “This spreads the risk of having access to only one certification programme.”

How it all began
Over four years ago a small working group from the South African forestry industry got together with the vision of developing a forestry standard and certification scheme that would be directly applicable and appropriate to commercial plantation forestry in South Africa.

Using the Government’s Principles, Criteria, Indicators and Standards (PCI&S) for sustainable forest management as a starting point, and through much consultation, negotiation and testing, SAFAS was born. The process was in accordance with the requirements of the PEFC with the intention of obtaining this international endorsement and recognition.

Accreditation body
“All that remains to be done before the system can be fully implemented is to get an accreditation body to approve certification bodies that can carry out audits against the standard,” said Craig. Various options are being pursued by the SAFAS national governing body.

Speaking at the general assembly, Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International CEO and secretary general, said: “Sustainable forest management goes beyond safeguarding forest as an ecosystem. It is also about securing sustainable livelihoods for the hundreds of millions of people living, working and depending on forests. It is also about rural communities, about indigenous people, about small, family run enterprises, providing countless jobs far away from cities. It is about all of us truly valuing the numerous benefits forests provide us with.”

About SAFAS
The Technical Committee that developed and reviewed the standard comprises:
• David Everard (Sappi Forests)
• Craig Norris (NCT Forestry Cooperative)
• Makwena Meleka (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries)
• Oscar Mokotedi (Department Environmental Affairs)
• Vusi Dladla (NCT)
• Steven Germishuizen (African Environmental Services)
• Sanele Khuzwayo (LIMA)

The national governing body comprises Dave Everard, Johan Nel (TWK), Steve Germushuizen and Craig Norris.

*First published in SA Forestry magazine, November 2018

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