PEFC-Austria system re-admitted to Keurhout

The Keurhout Board of Experts (BoE) has (re-)admitted the PEFC-Austria System (PEFC-AT).

Since 2003 all Austrian PEFC certificates for forest management and several certificates for CoC, had been admitted to the Keurhout-Sustainable system. As these became due for renovation, revalidation was discussed among the parties involved.

From early 2007, on request of Keurhout participants, a (re-)validation study took place of the entire PEFC-AT System. The study included the review of relevant documents, several rounds of questions and answers, and a visit by a BoE member to Austria (June 2007). During the visit discussions were held with the system manager and detailed insight was gained through revision of additional relevant documentation. Field visits were not considered to be necessary given the earlier knowledge of and experiences with the system and the practicalities of Austrian forestry. The admission of the PEFC-AT system to the Keurhout Sustainable system has a validity of 4 years. The actual validation covers the admission of a total area of approximately 3,96 million ha and 273 CoC certificates to the Keurhout-Sustainable system.

After the Finnish and Swedish PEFC-Systems, the PEFC-AT system is the third 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 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 Austrian timber processing companies (with a PEFC CoC certificate) a distinction has been made between:

1. companies that process timber originating from PEFC-AT 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