Keurhout admits MTCS system to Keurhout-Legal!

With effect from March 10 th 2009 the Keurhout Board of Experts (BoE) has admitted the MTCS, the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme, to its Keurhout-Legal system. MTCS is the national timber certification scheme of Malaysia operated by the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC), The MTCC was established in 1999 and the MTCS became operational in 2001, but has since then undergone significant improvements over the last few years. Its forest management standard (MC&I-2002) is based on the FSC Principles and Criteria as the template. Since July 2008 MTCS has adopted a new institutional arrangement, whereby independent accredited Certification Bodies (CB’s) are not only responsible for carrying out audits, but also directly responsible for the issuance of certificates under the scheme. In view of its endeavour to achieve full endorsement by PEFC, other arrangements were also introduced at the same time. e.g. MTCS CoC-companies may opt to get certified against the PEFC-Annex 4 CoC standard, instead of the MTCS RCOC standard. The latter is an improved version of the earlier RAP/CoC standard and remains in use.

The MTCS has been designed to verify that timber has been produced in a sustainable way by a particular forestry or timber company and sold and processed along a controlled CoC, including verification of the legal origin or legal compliance of timber. Some EU governments have already recognized the MTCS system in this respect ( Denmark, UK). MTCS certified timber is traced and verified throughout the supply chain.

Between October 2008 and February 2009, on request of Keurhout participants, a system validation study of the MTCS system in the context of Legal Origin was conducted. The study included the review of all relevant documents and discussions with the MTCS system manager, MTCC. There has been a relationship between Keurhout and MTCC since 1999. Over the years, a lot of insight has been gained by the BoE through the various validation studies conducted on the MTCC certificates and the annual review of related field audit reports. Since August 2005, several FMU and CoC certificates had been admitted to the Keurhout-Legal system. By the end of 2008, based on validation of individual certificates, a total area of 3.8 million ha of certified forests and 36 CoC companies have been admitted under the Keurhout legal system. The admission of MTCS to the Keurhout-Legal system has a validity of 4 years. The validation concerns the entire MTCS system, which to date covers the legal management of approximately 4.482.000 ha of certified forest, divided over 9 Forest Management Units (FMU’s) in Malaysia. The chain of custody (CoC) comprises 122 valid certificates.

The above means a significant addition both in terms of total admitted area, as in admitted number of CoC certificate holders to Keurhout Legal. The total certified area covered under Keurhout-Legal hereby almost amounts 8,75million ha, whereas the total admitted number of CoC holders has increased to 132As a result not only the volume of Keurhout-Legal timber will be increased, but also the volume of Keurhout-Sustainable timber level 2 (of which up to 30 % may consist of Keurhout-Legal timber).

After the admission of the SGS-TLTV system in 2008, the MTCS is the second certification system which has been positively assessed against the Keurhout Protocol for Validation of Certification Systems (KH-SYS) within the context of Legal Origin. KH-SYS can be used for the validation of either Legal or Sustainable systems. In the former case, the protocol is based on the Keurhout Protocol for the Validation of Legal Origin (KH-LET), with additional requirements at system level. Admission of a certification system to Keurhout-Legal implies that in principle all certificates that have been/are issued under the system are admitted to Keurhout-Legal.

All timber processing companies with a MTCS certificate are properly controlled with respect to compliance with specific MTCS-requirements which aim at assuring that timber from controversial sources is excluded. Timber from third party sources is controlled according to MTCS requirements for legal origin. Accredited CB’s verify compliance with those conditions annually.

Admitted exporting companies may request permission to use the Keurhout-Legal logo on-product, in line with the procedures as detailed in the Keurhout-Logo Guide. Keurhout-Legal timber can either be sold as such or be applied in Keurhout-Sustainable level 2 products.

For the validation report, click here.