Aug 24, 2012. /Lesprom Network/. PEFC is has selected six projects to benefit from its Collaboration Fund this year, as the PEFC said in the press release received by Lesprom Network . The PEFC Collaboration Fund seeks to support efforts to advance sustainable forest management and forest certification around the world by members and partner organizations. Through the competitive small grants programme, PEFC encourages locally relevant advancements in the sustainable management of forests. The six projects selected this year will receive a total of more than CHF 127.000 ($133, 026) over the course of the next 12-18 month. In total, PEFC awarded close to a quarter of a million Swiss Francs to eleven projects through the Collaboration Fund in 2011 and 2012. This year's grantees include CESEFOR-Mediterranean Model Forest Network (Spain), the Estonian Forest Certification Council (Estonia), the Forest Certification Center (Russia), NymE Erfaret (Hungary) and PEFC Italy (Italy and the Balkans, two projects) and a total of about 20 project partners. "We are thrilled to start working with these organisations and develop new partnerships with them to bring forward sustainable forest management and forest certification in new areas," said Sarah Price, Head of Projects and Development at PEFC International. "Our experiences from last years have demonstrated that the PEFC Collaboration Fund has the potential to make a real difference on the ground, and we hope that the 2012 projects will be equally successful." The call for entries for the 2013 PEFC Collaboration Fund is expected to be issued in late 2012. PEFC is the world's largest forest certification system.