Keurhout admits PEFC-Germany system to Keurhout Sustainable!

The Keurhout Board of Experts (BoE) has admitted the PEFC-Germany System (PEFC-GE) to its Keurhout Sustainable system.

From early 2007, on request of Keurhout participants, a validation study took place of the PEFC-GE System. The study included the review of relevant documents, several rounds of questions and answers, and a mission by two BoE members to Germany (July 2007). During the mission discussions were held with the system manager, representatives of forest managers, certifying organisations and other stakeholders. Additional insight was gained through the revision of relevant documentation and field visits, during which also a field audit by a certifying body was attended. All this contributed to further increase the knowledge and understanding of the German PEFC system and the practicalities of German forestry. The admission of the PEFC-GE system to the Keurhout Sustainable system has a validity of 4 years. The actual validation covers the admission of a total area of approximately 7,18 million ha and more than 750 CoC certificate holders to the Keurhout-Sustainable system.

The above means a significant addition both in total admitted area, as in admitted number of CoC certificate holders. The total certified area covered under the Keurhout-Sustainable system hereby almost amounts 50 million ha, whereas the total admitted number of CoC holders has grown to well over 1,280. As a result a considerable part of the softwood flows in The Netherlands can now be delivered as Keurhout-Sustainable.

After the earlier admissions of the Finnish PEFC-System (2006) and the Swedish and Austrian PEFC-Systems (2007), the PEFC-GE system is the fourth certification system which has been validated with positive results against the Keurhout Protocol for Validation of Certification Systems (KH-SYS).

KH-SYS is based on the Keurhout Protocol for the Validation of Sustainable Forest Management (KH-SFM), but has additional requirements at system level. Admission of a certification system to the Keurhout-Sustainable system implies that in principle all certificates that have been/are issued under the system can be admitted to Keurhout-Sustainable. The first working edition of KH-SYS was approved by NTTA in August 2005; this validation was carried out against the May 2006 version of the KH-SYS protocol.

All German timber processing companies with a PEFC CoC certificate are properly controlled with respect to compliance with specific PEFC-requirements (Appendix 7 to PEFC Annex 4) which aim at assuring that timber from controversial sources is excluded. Accredited certification bodies verify compliance with those conditions annually.

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

For the validation report, click here