We have arrived at version 0.4 of the standard, a document that evolves as new certification experiences define new needs, additional areas and protections. Thus PEFC Italia, on behalf of PEFC International, is creating and perfecting the guidelines for the certification of ecosystem services of PEFC certified forests and plantations which, at the end of the study period, will be adopted internationally.
The new version, released today through the PEFC Italia website, contains several substantial changes by introducing the possibility of group certification for some realities, revisions at the level of the carbon appendices and tourist usability with the addition of an appendix dedicated to the market rules of sustainability credits.
Specifically, the main changes concern:
- the possibility of group certification for the carbon appendices, forest biodiversity and tourist usability for territorial coordination bodies (for example Parks, MAB Reserves, Public Bodies, etc.), realities for which the management of the ecosystem services of the areas, although distinct from the point of view of the properties, is carried out as an aggregate;
- in the appendix relating to Carbon, the methodologies proposed for calculating the tons of CO 2 absorbed or not emitted have been revised;
- in the appendix of the Tourist Usability all the indicators have been transformed into qualitative indicators; that is, a description of some elements of the area to be certified is requested or alternatively a series of elements are proposed among which to identify the most suitable for the reality to be certified;
- the standard now has an appendix containing the Guidelines for the sale of PEFC sustainability credits on the voluntary market.
In its first 14 months of life, the standard, however, gave rise to two certifications for forest carbon, issued with version 0.3 to the Comunalia di Valdena Santa Maria and to Boschi Carnici, while the forest biodiversity certification was issued to Veneto Agricoltura in September 2021. (Source: Francesca Dini, https://www.pefc.it/ )
To download the new standard version 0.4 and related documents here