This is to announce that the review of the MC&I(Natural Forest) will be put on hold in 2017 pending the completion of the review of the PEFC sustainability benchmark expected by the end of 2017.
The review of the MC&I(Natural Forest) that commenced in January 2016 has progressed well on schedule with the conduct of the first public comment on the standard, and two meetings of the Standards Review Committee (SRC). The Second Meeting of the SRC held on 21 – 23 September 2016 in Sibu has produced an Enquiry Draft 1 that has incorporated the requirements of the MC&I Forest Plantation.v2 into the MC&I(Natural Forest) as a merged standard. The decision to merge the two standards was based on the outcome of the MTCC Stakeholder Dialogue held in July 2015.
In order to ensure that the national standard revision process of all PEFC member countries take on board the revised PEFC sustainability benchmark, PEFC International has offered an extraordinary endorsement extension until 31 December 2019.
In this connection, the 71st meeting of the MTCC Board of Trustees has agreed that the review of the MC&I(Natural Forest) be put on hold and resumed in 2018 (the indicative timeline can be viewed here). All relevant stakeholders will be periodically informed of the progress of review of the PEFC sustainability benchmark and any lastest update on the review of MC&I(Natural Forest).