The certificates for sustainable forest management (SFM certificates) are carefully reviewed against the criteria of the relevant standards of the Keurhout Protocol on the basis of the underlying documents:
- All relevant local and international legislation and regulations. These must be complied with.
- Adequate control/management system. The forest manager must possess an adequate management system.
- Level of sustainable forest management. In the execution of forest management, it must be possible to demonstrate that sufficient attention is paid to guaranteeing the integrity of the ecological functions and the continuity of the social-economic and social-cultural functions, on the basis of the related criteria and indicators.
- Inspection by a recognised certification body. The certification bodies are independent and accredited, can demonstrate that they comply with international guidelines relating to organisation and procedures and possess the necessary specific forest management expertise.
- Effective chain-of-custody. The procedures followed in the transport chain with regard to keeping the timber flows separate must be watertight and transparent and inspected by an independent CB.
* For more details regarding the review criteria, reference is made to the Keurhout Protocol (version May 15th 2009 ), (English), (pdf, 155 KB).