Footprints in the forest - Fern

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Criteria IV: Independent third-party assessments, adequate control mechanisms and stakeholder consultation Certification bodies accredited by the national accreditation body (Traegergemeinschaft fuer Akkreditierung, TGA) in accordance with EN 45011 and/or EN 45012 are entitled to carry out PEFC certification. A further requirement for PEFC certification bodies is accreditation by TGA in Scope No 1 “Environment and Quality Management” (Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries) 101 . The following certifiers are carrying out PEFC certification: - Landesgewerbeanstalt (Intercert/LGA) - Gesellschaft fur Qualitaetsmanagement system (DQS) - TUEV in German: TÜV Nord Zertifizierungs- und Umweltgutachter Gesellschaft (TUEV Nord) - AGRIZERT - SGS-ICS Requirements and procedures are described in detail in the system description and in Annex V: Area weighted control-sampling. The certification process hasn’t changed. The certification body assesses the regional forest report which was written by the regional PEFC working group. The report is based on existing forest-related data and addresses the requirements described in the List of Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management at the regional level (Annex II of the PEFC Germany systems document). If the regional forest report passes the certification audit, the audited region receives a “certificate of conformity” 102 . Private forest owners must then apply to get a certificate. No field visits are required for regions to receive a declaration of conformity, or for a forest owner to receive a certificate. The auditing process hasn’t changed either. Every five years, the regional forest report is re-assessed by the certification body. During these assessments, the certification body determines the extent to which the goals set out in the regional forest report have been achieved. If the regional forest report does not pass the re-assessment, all certificates in the region become invalid. Thus, a forest owner could loose his / her certificate even though forest management of their forests may be in compliance with all PEFC performance requirements they pledged to comply with 103 . Annual field visits assessing forest management at the level of the forest management unit are carried out according to an area-weighted sampling system by the regional entity. State and larger municipal forests as well as larger private forest holdings are more likely to be 101 Fenner, R and Kill, J. German case study for Behind the logo. Fern, 2001 102 Fenner, R and Kill, J. German case study for Behind the logo. Fern, 2001 103 Ibid 37
assessed during field visits then smaller holdings with this sampling method. Annex V of the PEFC systems documents requires that 10% of certified forests be audited annually. A process that would ensure that during the lifetime of a certificate all certificate holders in the certified regions have been subject to at least one field visit does not appear to be in place 104 . Consultation of interested parties during the certification process or during monitoring audits is not required. Although, according to PEFC Germany, all interested parties have the possibility to join the regional working groups and would then be fully informed and integrated in the planning and implementation of the field audits. They have the opportunity to accompany the certifiers as witnesses. PEFC Germany states that even those groups which have refused to join these working groups are invited to field audits. Criteria V: Full transparency to all concerned parties and the public The PEFC documents suggest that a summary of the audit report be made public. The certifier makes the final decision on the content of the (summary) report. Summary reports, or “excerpts” as they are called, are publicly available on the web site of PEFC Germany 105 . These reports are generally around 10 to 20 pages and contain information such as the size of the certified area and the type of forest ownership. There is no information about which forest owner was audited and what the results of the certification was in that specific forest. Criteria VI: Certification at the forest management unit level, rather than at country or regional level PEFC Germany still operates at a regional level. There are no procedures in place for individual or group certification. A regional report is produced by PEFC regional working groups with the support of state forestry departments. The report largely contains inventory data gathered for other national and regional reporting purposes, they do not contain information related to quantified and binding performance requirements pertaining to forest management on-the-ground 106 . Following a successful audit of a regional report, a declaration of conformity is issued at the regional level and the forests in the region become certifiable. The forest owners in the region receive a certificate indicating they practise sustainable forest management by committing voluntarily to the forest management guidelines (‘Leitlinien’) developed by PEFC-Germany. These guidelines are considered by PEFC Germany as performancebased; the analysis carried out for this report however, revealed a lack of definitions for 104 Ibid 105 PEFC Germany http://www.pefc.de , June 2003 106 Fenner, R and Kill, J. German case study for Behind the logo. Fern, 2001 38
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 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: PEFC Germany - status of certificat
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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