Keurhout admits the SGS-TLTV-VLO system to Keurhout-Legal!

June, 1st, 2010      

Background

In the summer 2008 the Keurhout Board of Experts (BoE) had admitted the Timber Legality & Traceability Verification (TLTV) System of SGS to its Keurhout-Legal System. The TLTV Programme was the first legality system ever to be admitted to the Keurhout-Legal System.

The TLTV Programme is a verification service by SGS which is designed to verify that timber has been legally produced, acquired and sold by a particular forestry or timber company. The legality-verified timber is traced throughout the supply chain.

Until 2008 the TLTV verifications confirmed full legal compliance according to nine principles of the TLTV Standard in one step. By the end of 2008 SGS introduced a phased approach for the TLTV System whereby clients could choose to achieve full legal compliance in two steps: successful audits against the first four legality principles of the TLTV Standard would verify the TLTV-VLO (Verified Legal Origin) stage, and compliance against four additional principles the TLTV-VLC (Verified Legal Compliance = full legal compliance) stage. Both stages comprise a traceability principle for the Chain-of-Custody (CoC).

As the admittance to the Keurhout-Legal System related to the full legal compliance stage only, Keurhout participants and SGS applied for an evaluation of the VLO component against the Keurhout Legal criteria in 2009.

Admission of TLTV-VLO
In September 2009 an adjustment process of the TLTV VLO Standard began with the objective to meet the requirements of the KH-Legal criteria. It was finalized with the establishment of a revised VLO standard on March 22nd 2010. Between April and June 2010 the BoE undertook a validation study of the TLTV-VLO system, which resulted in the admission of SGS TLTV-VLO to the Keurhout Legal System as per June 10th 2010.

The admission of TLTV-VLO to the Keurhout-Legal System has a validity of 5 years and concerns the entire TLTV-VLO System. It must be pointed out however, that the admission is based on the requirements of the TLTV-VLO Standard dated 22/03/2010. This means that only verification statements (certificates) issued against this new standard (or later versions) are valid as KH-Legal.
To bring existing VLO clients in compliance with the new criteria, SGS will carry out VLO surveillance audits against the 2010 Standard and issue new TLTV-VLO Verification Statements.
The factual admission of specific TLTV-VLO-verified parties to the KH-Legal System is therefore expected to take place until the end of this year on a case by case basis (as soon as a new TLTV-statement has been issued by SGS).

SGS’ latest development, a TLTV group verification system, has not been admitted to KH-Legal yet since it is still in the pilot project phase; it will be assessed separately as soon as relevant.

To date the SGS-TLTV-VLO System covers well over 2.6 million ha of forest, divided over 11 VLO statements in 3 countries (Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea). The chain of custody (CoC) actually comprises 12 statements in producer and trading countries (Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia).

The above means a significant addition both in total admitted area, as in admitted number of CoC certificate holders to Keurhout Legal. The total certified area covered under Keurhout-Legal so far amounts to 9,6 million ha, whereas the total admitted number of CoC holders is well over 150.
As 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).

All timber processing companies with a TLTV-VLO statement are properly controlled and in compliance with the TLTV-VLO requirements which aim at assuring that timber from controversial sources is excluded. Timber from third party sources is controlled according to SGS requirements for legal origin. SGS verifies compliance with those conditions at least annually.

Admitted exporting companies in producer countries may request permission to use the Keurhout-Legal logo on-product, in line with the procedures as detailed in the Keurhout-Logo Use Guide.