Sustainable African Forest Assurance Scheme
WHO IS SAFAS?
SAFAS is an African not-for-profit organisation promoting and supporting responsible wood production and sustainable land use. We work in all forested environments in the Southern African region where products and services are generated. Furthermore we work with the entire forest based value chain to ensure sustainability, traceability and transparency. Â
We believe that sustainable management starts with understanding your values and the values in the landscape. Then follows what actions needed to preserve and enhance those values for the long-term.
We are dedicated to include all scales of operation, designing our systems and standards to ensure that smallholders as well as global corporates can access and benefit from them.
WHAT DOES SAFAS DO?
SAFAS is the National Governing Body for the PEFC endorsed SAFAS Certification System. SAFAS is a regional certification system, extending and sharing its systems to other countries Southern Africa. We are currently working with Eswatini to develop a national forest management standard. We work with PEFC because it focusses on being locally relevant and facilitates innovative approaches to group certification, making it ideal for the small-scale forest owner.
PEFC works closely with National Governing Bodies and other alliance partners to stay ahead of growing suite of global requirements related to demonstrating responsible business practices. These include Carbon reporting, EUDR compliance and increasing demands for better data to demonstrate sustainability.