The Forest Certification section of the Programme Office for Social and Ecological Standards supports the process of forest certification internationally in selected developing countries. We believe forest certification to be a development-policy tool that enables the vision of sustainable development to be put into practice in the forestry sector.

The participatory development of standards for sustainable forest management is central to our work. We cooperate with the responsible institutions and other key players to ensure that the standards are implemented at the forest enterprise level. Furthermore, we document our experiences with certification processes and disseminate the information.

Priority issues include:

• setting up of certification schemes 
• certification and community forestry 
• certification as an example for the implementation of sustainable development
• cooperation between various certification initiatives
• wider impacts of certification.

Method

The Forest Certification Programme supports those involved in certification processes and helps them work together. To this end we publish information via the internet and newsletters, organise training and seminars and contribute to the financing of research work.

Geographical focus

Geographically, GTZ pursues a two-pronged strategy: 

• We support initiatives in priority countries or regions, such as the Amazon and Indonesia, which have already launched processes for the development of sustainable forest management standards. 
• We help coordinate people and activities across countries and institutions in the field of sustainable forest management: cooperation and alliances between various initiatives and key players, involvement of new actors, development of joint regional strategies, exchange of information, concepts and experiences.

Target Groups

The project supports key players in forest certification processes, i.e. groups that are involved in or affected by the manufacture of forest products. These include: 

• forest enterprises (i.e. concessionaires, small and medium-sized enterprises, forest managing communities and cooperatives, state enterprises, etc.) 
• processing industries 
• the timber trade
• consumers
• certification organisations
• public administrations
• non-governmental organisations – representing civil society 
• labour unions.

Project support is given to certification processes in co-operation with German, European and international public, private and non-governmental organisations.