Keurhout approves FFCS system

The Keurhout Board of Experts (BoE) has admitted the Finnish Forest Certification System (FFCS).
Between May 2005 and October 2006 a validation study took place which included the review of relevant documents, several rounds of questions and answers, a visit by the Secretary General of FFCS (January 2006) and a field mission by two BoE members to Finland (June 2006). During the mission field visits were made and discussions were held with relevant stakeholders. It enabled to fill gaps in information and to obtain understanding of the practicalities of Finnish forestry and FFCS, given the nature and complexity of the Finnish forest management approach and the interwoven position of FFCS with law enforcement. The admission of the FFCS system to the Keurhout Sustainable system has a validity of 4 years.

The FFCS system is the first certification system which has been validated against the recently established Keurhout Protocol for Validation of Certification Systems (KH-SYS). KH-SYS is based on the Keurhout Protocol for Validation of Sustainable Forest Management (KH-SFM), but has additional requirements at system level. Admission of a certification system to the KH-Sustainable system implies that in principle all certificates that have been/are issued under the system can be admitted to KH-Sustainable. The first working edition of KH-SYS was approved by NTTA in August 2005.

As from July 2001, a considerable number of FFCS certificates for forest management and CoC had been admitted to the KH-Sustainable system. In the course of 2005 the FFCS system was endorsed by PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Certification Systems). Through the actual re-validation the admission of a total area of approximately 22 million ha to the KH-Sustainable system has been renewed.

With respect to Finnish timber processing companies (with a PEFC CoC certificate) a distinction has been made between:
a) companies that process timber originating from FFCS certified forest only. These will be admitted to KH-sustainable without further conditions.
b) companies that also process imported timber (including from Russia). Companies in this group will be admitted as soon as they are reported to comply with specific conditions which aim at assuring that timber from controversial sources is excluded. Compliance with those conditions will be verified and monitored by accredited certification bodies.
c) previously KH-admitted CoC companies. Only recently special concerns about timber from controversial sources became evident. As a result former validations did not take into account the specific conditions related to this aspect. To arrange for verification of compliance with these specific conditions, a temporary extension has been granted to all previously KH-admitted CoC companies. The transitional period will last until May 1st 2007.

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

For the decision of Acceptance, click here.