Project description

The Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC) supports the forest certification process in the Congo Basin through the Programme for the Promotion of Certified Exploitation (PPECF), which is funded by Germany (KfW). The PPECF is aimed at forestry companies and their technical and financial partners (conservation NGOs, consultancies, research institutes, administrations, civil society, donors, etc.) and supports their efforts to achieve "sustainable" forestry. 

Objectives

• set up operational actions and tools within forest companies through a long-term technical support approach towards a certificate of their choice;
• broaden the certification by proposing coaching support both for sustainable management certificates (FSC® ® and PAFC) but also, for legality certificates (OLB, LS);
• support companies that have benefited little or not yet from the PPECF, in particular national companies and companies with Asian capital;
• accentuate actions directly related to internal social aspects (living conditions, rights, health, safety of workers) and external aspects (local development, consideration of indigenous peoples), which are often pinpointed in audits of compliance with a certification scheme (legality or sustainable management);
• improve the ecological monitoring of certified concessions, in particular through the implementation of wildlife protection plans, which are also the subject of recurrent requests for corrective action;
• promote exploitation models compatible with sustainable management and make them known downstream in the sector to final consumers;
• contribute to the marketing of certified wood on international markets;
• to propose innovative interventions, focused on the provision of digital tools (tutorials, software, guides) making certification more accessible and facilitating the qualitative management of sustainable management, on a daily basis.

The PPECF operates in Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Gabon, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.