Market opportunities thanks to sustainability certificates

The PEFC and FSC certification standards go beyond the minimum requirements of legality, setting out more extensive demands in regard to environmental and social sustainability in forestry as well as an uninterrupted chain of custody. The increasingly stringent legal requirements in importing countries will benefit trade in sustainably certified timber in the medium term. The loss of many certificates in Russia and Belarus in 2022 led to a reduction of the total forest area under FSC certification by almost 15 %. At the beginning of 2023, the global FSC-certified area amounted to 193 million hectares, which is roughly equivalent to the area of Germany, France, Spain, Sweden combined. Of the total FSC-certified area worldwide, only slightly less than 11 % fell to tropical forests and afforestation. This means that these forests are still heavily underrepresented in FSC certification. Precious Woods manages slightly more than 5 % of the total FSC-certified tropical forest area.