The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) European Forestry Commission convened on 29 September 2005 to discuss governments’ roles in forest certification for sustainable forest management.

Participants at this one-day policy forum concluded, among others, that governments should endeavor to remain neutral between competing schemes, and governments and stakeholders should refocus on the commonly shared objective of promoting sustainable forest management and grasp the opportunity to promote the sound us of wood through certification. Participants also expressed concern about the competition between certification schemes, the differences between public procurement policies in different countries, and the lack of information on production, consumption and trade of certified forest products.
Link to further information
UNECE press release, 4 October 2005