"I am delighted to announce that the PEFC International Board is recommending the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee for PEFC membership," said Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International, during his visit in Myanmar last week.

Following the recommendation, the PEFC General Assembly is now voting on Myanmar’s application for membership. It will announce the result of the vote in early June.

While in Myanmar, Ben attended a seminar in Yangon, hosted by PEFC and the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee (MFCC), our prospective national member for the country. Our collaboration on current and future projects was a key focus of the seminar, as we seek to develop our partnership with MFCC in order to bring sustainable management to Myanmar’s forests.

"We look forward to welcoming MFCC into the PEFC family and to advancing sustainable forest management with you in Myanmar," said Ben, speaking at the seminar.

"Until now, there has been little international awareness of what stakeholders in Myanmar have been doing to bring timber legality and sustainable forest management to the country," said Baber Cho, Secretary of MFCC.

"We hope to change this, as we build on the achieved progress and continue to strengthen the Myanmar Timber Legality Assurance System (MTLAS)".