First OLB certificates factually admitted to the KH-Legal system!

Per January 25th 2011 the Keurhout Board of Experts (BoE) admitted the OLB (Origine et Légalité des Bois) System of Bureau Veritas Certification to its Keurhout-Legal system. Bureau Veritas Certification is a France based and internationally well known Certification Body in the field of forestry, among others. It applies a phased approach to forest certification. The forest certification program comprises a series of verification services for legality compliance and forest management: verification of Legal Origin and Legal Compliance (OLB) and Certification of Sustainable Forest Management (FSC or PEFC).

The OLB system was admitted to KH-Legal last January after a new OLB standard had been established in December 2010. That standard had some significant changes as compared with the previous one. As a result it was decided that only after on-going OLB certificates had been audited against the new OLB standard, certificate holders would be factually admitted to Keurhout Legal.

The OLB system became operational in 2004. Actually approximately 2, 1 million ha are covered, involving 20 forest management certificates in 3 countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic and Gabon). In addition well over 20 CoC certificates have been issued by Bureau Veritas Certification.

The actual KH-Legal admission of OLB certificates relates to the first certificates that have been audited against the new OLB standard in Cameroon. It concerns the companies CEFAC, CUF, ALPI and Wijma and covers both CoC certificates as a group of 17 FMU’s managed by these companies. The total area of the certified concessions that are admitted per June 30th 2011 amounts to well over 1.21 million ha with a diversity of African timber species.
 
With the actual admission the total area under KH-Legal has increased to well over 16 million ha, while the number of CoC certificates amounts 225.

Several other companies will be audited in the coming months and/or are waiting for issuance of a new OLB certificate. These companies will be mentioned on the Keurhout website as soon as the relevant information is made available by Bureau Veritas Certification.