The Sustainable African Forest Assurance Scheme (SAFAS) was officially endorsed by the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) in November 2018. The SAFAS sustainable forest management standard is based on the South African government’s* Principles Criteria, Indicators and Standards for sustainable forest management and SAFAS worked closely with government to develop the standard.

*The Department of Environment Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF)

STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION

A rigorous stakeholder consultation process and field testing helped ensure the standard was appropriate for all scales of plantation forestry in South Africa as well as being adaptable to other forest types and national contexts. SAFAS chose PEFC endorsement because of their track record of being relevant to smallholders and communities as well as large corporate wood producers. As champions  of a bottom-up approach to certification PEFC is the ideal system for Africa and other developing regions.

WORKING GROUP

The national standard working group represented a broad range of forestry-related interests comprising the following members.
•    David Everard (Sappi Forests) – Industry Large Scale forestry
•    Craig Norris (NCT Forestry Cooperative) – Industry Smallholders and farmers
•    Makwena Meleka (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) Government
•    Oscar Mokotedi (Department Environmental Affairs) – Government Environment
•    Vusi Dladla (NCT) – Communities and Smallholders
•    Steven Germishuizen (African Environmental Services) – Environment
•    Sanele Khuzwayo (LIMA) – Rural development and communities

The SAFAS Certification system is administered by the National Governing Body (NGB) which is a member of the PEFC. 

For certification enquiries contact Steven Germishuizen (General Manager) at steve@aes.co.za