On July 27th, 2022, at the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, the Vietnam Forest Certification Office (VFCO) participated in the 25th online meeting of the ASEAN Working Group on the implementation of the Forest Certification Scheme of the Member States. At the meeting, Mr. Vu Tan Phuong, Director of VFCO updated the progress and achievement of Vietnam Forest Certification Scheme.
The main results achieved from October 2021 to July 2022 on the implementation of the Vietnam Forest Certification Scheme (VFCS) includes: (1) Completing the legal basis of VFCO to operate the VFCS as a organizations with legal and independent status; (2) Updating 6 standards and issuing 8 technical guidelines; (3) Organizing 2 international training courses for auditors and experts of CoC certification bodies with 47 participants; 2 training courses for 57 trainees on Sustainable Forest Management; (4) Participating in 5 seminars and exhibitions promoting VFCS; (5) Supporting corporations and enterprises to build capacity and connect the market; (6) Signing cooperation agreements with the Bureau of Accreditation (BOA), Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and 5 contracts with domestic and international certification bodies on providing sustainable forest management (SFM) and chain of custody certification (CoC) services; 10 contracts on using VFCS/PEFC trademarks with enterprises. Up to now, Vietnam has about 300,000 ha of forest certified for sustainable forest management, of which the forest area certified under VFCS/PEFC is 103,000 ha. Vietnam aims to achieve a forest area with sustainable forest management certification of 500,000 ha by 2020 and about 1,000,000 ha by 2030.
At the meeting, VFCO also updated on the progress of the regional project on “Institutionalization of the National Certification Scheme to enhance trade in forest products in ASEAN countries” chaired by Vietnam. The project will focus on improving institutions, policies and guidelines; capacity building and enhanced cooperation and experience sharing in the operation of the Forest Certification Scheme of the ASEAN Members.
VFCO
