NCCF organizes Online Workshop on Forest Certification for Maharashtra Forest Department

Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF) organized an online Workshop on Forest Certification for the State Forest Department, Maharashtra from 15:00 pm to 17:00 pm on Thursday, 23rd July 2020.

The workshop was inaugurated by Dr N. Rambabu, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & HoFF, Government of Maharashtra. He expressed that forest certification of few divisions of Maharashtra, having economic activities like extraction of timber and bamboo is being deliberated and it is essential to fully understand the advantages, cost , processes and modalities of certification to decide an action plan for certification. Mr Praveen Srivastava, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Production& Management), Government of Maharashtra in his introductory remarks, highlighted the issues related to absence of certification on raw material and products obtained from the forests and the need for forest certification. He thanked NCCF for arranging this online workshop for Forest Department of Maharashtra.

Mr A.K. Srivastava, Director General, NCCF welcomed the Chief Guest and participants and presented briefly the objectives and activities of NCCF and how certification helps in promoting sustainability, trade and various social and economic benefits.

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The workshop was attended by 74 delegates including officers of the Forest Department, Forest Corporation, Wildlife Wing, Biodiversity Board, representatives of Certification Bodies, industry and trade. It was intended to sensitize the professional foresters and stakeholders about the environmental, economic and social advantages of certification and the modalities for taking up certification with the larger objective of promoting sustainable management of forests.

Sessions were conducted by distinguished panelists on various aspects of certification. Mr AK Bansal, Lead Forest Management Auditor (ex Addl. DG, MoEF&CC; Chairperson, NCCF NWFP Standard Development Group), Mr Avani K Varma, (ex PCCF&HoFF, Karnataka; Chairperson, NCCF FM Standard Development Group), Ms Taruna, Lead Forest Management Auditor, GIPL, Mr Suneel Pandey, Secretary, NCCF (Vice President, Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division, ITC Ltd., India) were the panelists for the workshop and the topics covered were, “Introduction to Forest Certification and role of NCCF”; “NCCF Forest Management Certification Standard”, “Modalities for taking up NCCF FM Certification” and “Industry Perspective of Forest Certification”.

Presentations were followed by a lively interaction between the participants and panelists wherein participants were able to achieve enhanced understanding of the advantages of certification , NCCF Forest Certification Standard and the modalities of taking up certification.

Dr Devendra Pandey (ex DG, FSI, Chairperson, NCCF ToF Standard Development Group),in his closing remarks, summarized the proceedings and explained the synersgy between Working Plan based Sustainable Forest Management and certification and how it is gaining importance worldwide. He thanked all the participants for joining the workshop.

The participants appreciated the quality of presentations and the professional inputs on certification received by them and expressed keen interest in attending more such NCCF events in the future.

The presentations made in the webinar and YouTube recording of the proceedings may be seen at the following hyperlinks:

About NCCF Introducing Forest Certification NCCF Forest Management Certification Standard Modalities and Procedures for taking up Certification Industry Perspective of Forest Certificatio