Workshop on NCCF - Forest Management Certification Standard held
October 27, 2018
Sidkeong Tulku Forest Conference Hall, Forest Secretarit, Deorali, Gangtok
A sensitization workshop on forest management certification standard was organised by Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NNCF) in collaboration with State Forest department for the the department officials, civil societies, institutes and experts at Forest Secretariat conference hall on October 27, 2018.
Forest department Principal Secretrary-cum-PCCF Shri M L Srivastava in his opening remarks mentioned briefly about the genesis and objectives of NCCF and encouraged the participants to seek clarifications and queries related to the subject. He also emphasied on the benefits and requirment of forest certification.
Forest certification is now a global movement and well recognised as an environment and marked based non-regulatory conservation tool designed to promote sustainable and responsible management of forests and trees outside forests by independent third party certification body. It has also become essential as several developed countries have put trade restrictions on import of non-certifed, and in some cases, on forest services also.
NCCF Chief Adviser Shri Jagdish Kishwan informed that the forest-based industries in India, particularly the paper, boards, plywood, medium density fibrewood, furniture and handicrafts etc. have been pushing for forest certification to enhance their market accessibility to western markets including European Union and USA.
Thereafter there was presentation by Dr. Ajay Saxena and Ms Taruna on the genesis of the forest certification, need for the nation specific forest certification standard and glimses of the forest management certification standard developed by NCCF through a multi-stakeholder consultation process involving State Forest departments and other agencies.
The workshop provided an intensive interactive platform for the NCCF functionaries and the participants who sought clarification on pressing queries on the process, utility, communtoty rights and soial and economic benefits of th NCCF- forest management certification.