OREANDA-NEWS. January 30, 2012. Belarus has had its forest product certification system approved by the European board of the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), the Forest Ministry said in a statement.

Now that Belarus has obtained a PEFC certificate of compliance, local forest farms are free to get international certificates from local agencies authorized by Belarus’ State Committee for Standards saving the trouble of hiring international audit companies to do the job.

With an international licence Belarusian timber producers can traded freely on world markets, the Forest Ministry said.

At the moment Belarus has 7.52 million hectares of PEFC-certified forests. Moreover, Belarus’ forests get certified under standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

For the time being, 32 Belarusian forest farms hold FSC certificates (over 47% of the total forest area of the Forestry Ministry of Belarus).