Footprints in the forest - Fern

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10cents/ha for the forest owner 13 ). Ten forest owners have applied for individual PEFC forest certification 14 . Group certification occurs for CoC certification but it was not possible to find detailed description of the procedure on the web site. Other: There is no indication on the PEFC Austria web site that the regional certification process entails field visits before a certificate is issued. The only requirement to fulfil before a forest owner can become certified is to “voluntarily recognize the PEFC criteria by signing the declaration of obligation” 15 . However, “on-site monitoring” was conducted during the regional re-audits in 2003 16 but it is unclear if those visits included field visits. There is no mention of environmental and social criteria in the re-audits (the aspects re- audited included business activities, system stability, entrepreneurial investment, work safety and damage by wild game 17 ). Certification reports are not publicly available. Even after several written requests from WWF Austria, PEFC Austria has consistently refused to make available or publish the audit reports 18 . BELGIUM Name of the national PEFC Governing Body: Woodnet asbl. Endorsed by the PEFCC in: February 2002 Number of hectares certified as of April 30 2003: 0 The www.woodnet.com web site given by the PEFCC as the contact for PEFC Belgium is actually the homepage of a Belgian association, WoodNet, uniting actors of the Belgian wood sector, including the timber, pulp and paper industry, forest owners, forest owners associations, the wood processing industry and wood trading houses. The main purposes of Woodnet are “to promote timber and its derivatives” and “to promote and set up European certification PEFC” 19 . WoodNet was established in 1997 by a forest owners association: the Royal Society of Private Forest Owners (SRFB). SRFB coordinates the activities of WoodNet A.S.B.L., which is curerntly responsible for facilitating the work of the Belgian PEFC 20 . 13 PEFC Austria Newsletter 1/02 January 2002 14 PEFC Austria http://www.pefc.at/zertifizierte_betriebe_logo/ 15 Gernot Arnold, PEFC regional representative, quoted in PEFC Austria Newsletter 1/02 January 2002 16 PEFC Austria Newsletter 8/03 April 2003 17 PEFC Austria Newsletter April 20003 18 Press release by WWF Austria – April 2003 19 http://www.woodnet.com/en/filliere/fedhome.asp?fedid=18&lg=FR&mb=M June 2003 20 PEFC Belgium. Belgian Forest Certification Scheme – version 3 (no date mentioned) 11
Decision making structure/voting with regard to standard development: The board of PEFC Belgium consists of a maximum of 14 seats distributed as follows (the number in brackets indicates how many of the seats available are currently filled) 21 : - 4 representatives of forest owners and managers (3) - 1 representative of primary wood processing industry (sawmills) - (1) - 1 representative of secondary wood processing industry - (e.g. panel industry ..)(1) - 2 representatives of environmental NGOs (2) - 2 representatives of consumer organisations (1) (in fact these are the hunters association) - 1 representative of trade unions (1) - 1 representative of scientific institution (1) - 1 representative of the retailers and /or import sector (1) - 1 representative of WoodNet (1) As the numbers above show, more than half of the seats are reserved for forestry interests. There is no information about voting procedures among the board. It is unclear if the board votes by simple majority or not 22 . Regional certification and/or FMU level certification: Although PEFC Belgium claims that certification can theoretically be conducted both at regional and individual levels, the PEFC document on operational procedures stipulates that “the level chosen for certification is the regional level” 23 . Three regions have been defined and a working group established in the Walloon region to develop a regional standard. “The objective [of certification] is to prove that the Walloon Region, as a whole is managed in accordance with the Belgian Scheme for sustainable forest management certification” 24 . A regional standard setting process has also been initiated in Flanders although the working group is not yet operational. In practice, once a region or a group of owners is certified, each property becomes certifiable. Individually, each manager and/or owner must sign a “charter” to confirm that they commit “to manage their forest in accordance with the regional objectives”, thereby confirming their participation in the regional or group certification. The charter (see Annex 2) includes 13 points including legal and forestry management requirements. 21 PEFC Belgium. Règlement d’Ordre Intérieur de la Commission PEFC Belgique (25/01/02) and Commission Constituante du PEFC Belgique – rapport de la réunion de 25/01/2002 22 Ibid 23 PEFC Belgium. Operational Procedure for Forestry Certification. Monday 22 January 2001 24 Ibid 12
Page 1 and 2: PEFC Footprints in the forest Curre
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Introduction 3 Co
Page 5 and 6: II. Conclusions The main purpose of
Page 7 and 8: efore a regional certificate is iss
Page 9 and 10: III Overview of all PEFCC members a
Page 11: 3.2. Decision making structure and
Page 15 and 16: owners association) after a third-p
Page 17 and 18: of the private forest owners in Lat
Page 19 and 20: SWITZERLAND This is the web site of
Page 21 and 22: IV. PEFC Sweden Author: Elisa Peter
Page 23 and 24: A new standard for group-certificat
Page 25 and 26: Because registers are not publicly
Page 27 and 28: SWEDAC has its own regulations to h
Page 29 and 30: VI PEFC Finland This section will b
Page 31 and 32: Criteria II: Equal and balanced par
Page 33 and 34: The second step is the verification
Page 35 and 36: Criteria XII: A transparent and hig
Page 37 and 38: PEFC Germany - status of certificat
Page 39 and 40: assessed during field visits then s
Page 41 and 42: The complaints mechanism is based o
Page 43 and 44: Annex 1 - List of PEFC members (fro
Page 46 and 47: Annex 2 - PEFC Belgium Charter CHAR
Page 48 and 49: and grazing, where the dimensions a
Page 50 and 51: 5-3 Are summary reports of certific
Page 52: References Dahl, L. April 2002. Bak

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