For that purpose, they have started in January this year a new sectorial project, for a duration of six years. The certification process is seen as having technical, economic and political dimensions. These two examples demonstrate the increasing interest of government bodies to take the lead in the definition of standards and indicators for SFM allowing the implementation, monitoring and the measurement over time of management practices awarded by certification. National standards already existing or modified according to changing needs shall be the basis for this work. This has been confirmed in a first meeting held by the President of the World Bank with the heads of 12 leading international forest companies and seven dominating environmental NGOs early this year in Washington.
Regional meetings are underway for establishing an action programme.
Also the European Commission, and in particular the Directorate General VIII has set up a large certification programme for ACP countries. This meeting, which was part of the Certification Information Service contracted by DG VIII to EFI, analysed the results of a market survey in selected EU countries. Only very few are willing to pay a bit more for labelled forest products. One additional output of the market survey was the unawareness of the public and the misunderstanding of forestry in general and forest management in particular regarding this issue. Thus, the need for more harmonized and scientific sound information on forest, forest industries, environment and trade through public relations campaigns.