Institution/Author: Public Enterprise Srbijasume/Dejan Miletić
Today, two internationally recognised forest certification schemes can serve to guide foresters on implementing sustainable forest management, to control the foresters up against the qualifying standards and to prove to stakeholder that the forests are being managed sustainably: The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certifications schemes (PEFC™). Both forest certification schemes are defining Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management, which have to be met before a forest management can achieve certification.
The FSC system develops the international FSC standards, including the centrepiece for Sustainable Forest Management by FSC called The FSC Principles and Criteria, consisting of 10 principles and 70 criteria, which has to be met by all forest management worldwide if determined to achieve FSC certification.
In terms of certification schemes in Serbia, only public forests are certified through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) certificate. PE “Srbijašume” has certified 834,439 ha and PE “Vojvodinašume” has certified 128,789 ha, which corresponds to 100% of the managed forests in both enterprises. Forests administered by the National Parks and non-state forests are currently not covered by any certification schemes.