Footprints in the forest - Fern

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According to PEFC Sweden, the PEFC standard requires changes to existing forest practices. For instance, the forest owners seeking PEFC certification need to establish a “green management plan”. However many forest owners already have such a management plan even if they are not PEFC certified 70 . Forest Owners Associations can decide to suspend a forest owner from the certification in case of non-compliance. PEFC Sweden didn’t know if this had occurred since the procedure t exclude a forest owner is entirely handled by the Forest Owners Associations or other umbrella organizations. Criteria IX: Applicability to all forest sizes and tenure systems The Swedish PEFC scheme has been intended to fit all kinds of forests and land tenure existing in Sweden. The primary target group of the scheme is small private forest owners but the PEFC system is also open for “direct certification” of large owners and entrepreneurs. (Lindahl K., 2001). The majority of PEFC certified forestland is privately owned 71 but around 40 municipalities are also PEFC certified 72 . The majority of the PEFC certified forest holdings are around 50 hectares 73 . If Holmen Skog becomes PEFC certified (they plan to go through the certification process at the end of 2003) they would become the largest PEFC certified holding in Sweden with 1 million hectares 74 . Criteria X: An effective and transparent complaints procedure The responsibility for conflict resolution is described in the PEFC Sweden Technical document (chapter 7) and is divided between PEFC Sweden, the certification bodies and the national accreditation body. The Technical Document briefly explains how to deal with complaints addressed to PEFC Sweden but it does not include information on how complaints to Forest Owners Associations should be handled. According to PEFC Sweden all the Forest Owners Associations have routines to handle external complaints 75 . Although anyone is allowed to bring forward a complaint, no formal complaints have so far been brought to the board 76 . 70 Per Larsson, WWF Sweden. Personal communication July 6, 2003 71 Ibid 72 Lena Dahl, WWF Sweden. Response to PEFC questionnaire. June 18, 2003 73 Folke Stenström, Executive Director PEFC Sweden. Response to the PEFC questionnaire. June 23, 2003 74 Ibid 75 Ibid 76 Ibid 25
SWEDAC has its own regulations to handle complaints regarding the accreditation procedure and outcome and requires from the certification bodies it accredits that they have their own procedures for addressing complaints regarding the certification process and outcome. No complaints have been brought forward to SWEDAC as regards to the accreditation of PEFC certification bodies 77 . Criteria XII: A transparent and high quality accreditation procedure Accreditation of PEFC certifiers has been fully operational in Sweden since 2001. The certification bodies are accredited by the National Accreditation Body SWEDAC. The first step in the accreditation process involves an assessment by SWEDAC of the competence of the organization that has applied for accreditation based on an assessment of the applicant’s documentation that describes its quality system, working and administrative procedures and the competence of its personnel 78 . The second step includes verification of how work is actually performed in practice through an assessment “on site” to check whether the normative documents are being correctly interpreted and applied in day to day work. SWEDAC also participates as an observer in one or more certification audits in the field before the final accreditation decision is taken. The assessment is documented in a report, which is not public 79 . Assessments are conducted by a lead assessor together with a technical expert from SkogsForsk, who is contracted on an ad-hoc basis to conduct accreditation and surveillance visits of PEFC accreditation bodies 80 . SkogForsk is “the research institute of the Swedish forestry sector” 81 . Assessment is performed against the requirements set out in SWEDAC’s various accreditation regulations (STAFS) and the international standards with requirements on certification bodies and certification. The basis for the accreditation process is found in ISO guide 61 (= EN 45010). The basis for the certification process is found in ISO guide 65 (= EN 45011), 62 and 66 (= EN 45012) (quality and environmental systems). The specific requirements on forest certification and chain of custody are in the PEFC’s Technical Document 82 . Based on those documents, the certification bodies write their routines and procedures. In SWEDAC’s experience, the general routines of the certification bodies are usually sufficient to deal with the general parts of the certification. The certification bodies need to add some special routines in order to meet the specific requirements such as those of the PEFC. SWEDAC in cooperation with PEFC Sweden and the certification bodies have developed a guiding document called “Certifieringsbeslut och certifikat” for certification 77 Kent Gustavsson, SWEDAC. Personal communication June 16, 2003 78 SWEDAC. http://www.swedac.se/sdd/System.nsf/(GUIview)/index_eng.html. June 2003 . Original with the author 79 Kent Gustavsson, SWEDAC. Personal communication June 16, 2003 80 Ibid 81 SkogForsk www.skogforsk.se . Original with the author. 82 Kent Gustavsson, SWEDAC. Personal communication June 16, 2003 26
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 and 12: 3.2. Decision making structure and
Page 13 and 14: Decision making structure/voting wi
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: Because registers are not publicly
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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