Eduardo Rojas, new president of PEFC International

Eduardo Rojas Briales, professor and researcher at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), has been elected the new president of the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), the most important forest certification organization in the world.

Doctor in Forest Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Rojas joined the UPV 20 years ago, in 2001, as a professor at the Higher Technical School of Agronomic and Natural Environment Engineering (ETSIAMN), where he has taught forestry, sustainable forest management, European forest resources, nurseries and reforestation, landscaping and gardening, pastoralism, forest genetic improvement, renewable energy, disturbances, and climate change and fires.

In 2004, Rojas was appointed deputy director of Academic Coordination of the ETSIAMN-UPV, being his key figure in the preparation of the curriculum for the new Degree in Forest and Natural Environment Engineering.

Likewise, Rojas is a member of the UPV’s Information and Communication Technologies Research Institute (ITACA), and since 2017 has also coordinated the training program that the Indian Forest Service organizes for its future forestry engineers abroad.

Composed of more than 80 institutions

PEFC is an international non-profit non-governmental organization, founded in 1999, and currently leads the national forest certification systems.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, PEFC currently includes a total of 86 institutions. 55 of them are independent national organizations that develop and implement the PEFC system in their country, while the remaining 31 include NGOs, trade unions, companies, trade associations, forest owner organizations and individuals committed to the purposes of the Program.

Rojas: “Although PEFC’s main instrument is certification, its mission and values are much broader”

Rojas, currently also dean of the College of Forestry Engineers, president of the Natural Capital Foundation and coordinator of Juntos por los Bosques, takes over from Peter Latham after the unanimous election of his candidacy, proposed by PEFC Spain and strongly endorsed in the framework of the 26th PEFC International General Assembly held this week.

“In recent years,” Rojas said after his election, “forests have been at the center of the main international debates, especially those related to the fight against climate change. In any case, although PEFC’s main instrument is certification, its mission and values ​​are much broader. There is no other organization in the world that represents the forestry community so completely ”, said the new president of PEFC International, who takes up Latham’s testimony thanking him for his leadership and his capacity for integration.

Subsequently, Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International, has stood out to conclude that, as “representative of forest owners and managers, expert in international forest policy and former deputy director general of FAO, Eduardo Rojas brings the necessary knowledge and skills in the current political debates, expanding the role of sustainable forest management, and thus tackling some of the greatest climate challenges of today ”.

Source: UPV’s Information Office