Keurhout approves Swedish PEFC system

The Keurhout Board of Experts (BoE) has admitted the Swedish PEFC System (PEFC-SE). On request of Keurhout participants between May 2005 and April 2007 a validation study took place which included the review of relevant documents (a.o. the new forest management standard for PEFC-SE, dated 28/02/2006), several rounds of questions and answers, and a field mission by two BoE members to Sweden (March 2007). During the mission terrain visits were made and discussions were held with system manager, certification body and relevant stakeholders. It enabled to obtain understanding of the practicalities of Swedish forestry and the PEFC-SE system. The admission of the PEFC-SE 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 million ha and more than 80 CoC certificates to the Keurhout-Sustainable system.

Since 2003 several Swedish FSC certificates for forest management and CoC, belonging to major forest industries, had been admitted to the Keurhout-Sustainable system. Some forest managers have opted as well for certification by the PEFC-SE system.

The PEFC-SE system is the second certification system which has been validated 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 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; this validation was carried out against the May 2006 version of the KH-SYS protocol.

With respect to Swedish timber processing companies (with a PEFC CoC certificate) a distinction has been made between:

1. companies that process timber originating from PEFC-SE certified forest only. These are admitted to Keurhout-Sustainable without further conditions.
2. companies that also process imported timber. Companies within this group are admitted under the condition that they will be 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 will 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.