Estonian Forest Certification Scheme
Part 4
Chain of Custody of Forest Based Products - Requirements
Final version
EstonianForest Certification Council
2002/ 2003/2006
Explanation to the requirements for the wood flow (chain – of – custody) certification
The current document – requirements for the wood flow (chain – of – custody; abbreviated as COC) certification in Estonia(hereinafter to as the Regulations) – is a part of Estonian forest certification scheme.
The basis of the document is the Pan-European Forest Certification Scheme, which has since the start of Estonian process been renamed The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (hereinafter to as PEFC) Scheme. The following principles have been taken as the guidelines for elaboration of the existing requirements:
1)the Regulations have to be in accordance with the requirements of PEFC for rendering their approval by the PEFC Council;
2)the Regulations have to hinder the selling of illegally cut timber (rules have to ensure, that products carrying the PEFCs` logo must not contain any wood raw material from illegal logging).
As the achieving of the conformity with the PEFC requirements is taken as obligatory position, the certification schemes of the other states, which have been approved by the PEFC Council, were used as examples to this work. However, it became evident, that most of the countries implement the general rules of PEFC without adding any specification or more exact regulations. This way of implementation has been used in the two Eastern European countries (Latvia and CzechRepublic) whose schemes are endorsed by the PEFC. In general, the national rules of COC are copied from the PEFC scheme, or the PEFC rules are referred to in the national systems.
The COC verification rules of the other widely spread certification system – FSC - have also very common/general feature (see http.
One of the incontrovertible aims of the verification of COC is to hinder illegal logging even in the case when timber is sold from not certified forest. Therefore it is possible that in Estonia, where the origination of the wood can be hardly verified using the valid legal prescriptions, the automatic implementation of the PEFC rules may not be sufficient. That’s why the Annex 1, which describes detailed instructions on verification of origin of wood in Estonian conditions, is added to the main text. The implementation of Annex 1 gives to the final buyer of roundwood the opportunity to be convinced in the origin of wood. The Annex 1 was originally elaborated and implemented in practise by the Stora Enso Mets Ltd. This material has been taken for the basis of the current rules on their permission, but further developed by the working group.
Annex 1 would be applicable for all companies who purchase roundwood[1] and have applied for the COC certificate. Actually, the main efforts of the working group were focused on development of Annex 1. However, this document does not comprise the detailed regulations for the companies selling the processed timber. The need for composing of such a document needs further analyses.
Notwithstanding, that working group mainly dealt with elaboration of Annex 1 it also composed the main part of chain-of-custody rules. The document, that based on PEFCs` regulations was called “Requirements for the wood flow (chain-of-custody) certification in Estonia” and was long time a part of Estonian Forest Certification Scheme. However, as Estonian rules have to be in a full compliance with PEFCs` documents and as PEFC Council adopted completely new document on rules of wood flow certification, it was decided by EMSN to replace the formerly elaborated “Requirements for the wood flow (chain-of-custody) certification in Estonia” by a normative document of PEFC. Thus, the rules of chain-of-custody of Estonian scheme are composed of two parts: 1) “Chain of Custody of Forest Based Products – Requirements”, adopted by the PEFC Council general Assembly on 29 October 2004 and amended on 17 June 2005; 2) Annex 1 Recommendatory Regulations to Verify the Origin of Timber.
Besides it has been decided in a working group, that the rules for chain of custody certification will be reviewed after 5 year period. The revision work will be initiated by EMSN who will also elaborate and approve the procedure rules for revision. In the revision of rules the participation of all relevant stakeholders has to be guaranteed.
The working group who elaborated the Estonian rules for wood flow was assembled by the EMSN and consisted of the following experts: Jaanus Aun (Private Forest Centre) as the co-ordinator, Aira Toss (Hiiumaa Erametskond, specialist on wood purchasing and forest management), Üllar Metsand (forest owner and small-scale entrepreneur on timber processing, the member of the board of Estonian Private Forest Union), Meelis Rauert (forest owner, forestry specialist in OÜ Wertholz Eesti) and Kalle Põld (the chairman of the Estonian Forest Certification Council). The working group had several meetings, but the draft documents were also discussed and revised in the e-mail conversations. In the frame of the work the consultations took place with the experts from Finland and Latvia and with the PEFC Council.
The views of all participants have been documented and considered in the course of the work of the working group. All interested parties had access to the sessions of working group in order to express their views and positions. The consensus was objective to reach to the decisions. Voting was no needed. All comments and suggestions made by publics have also been considered.
Jaanus Aun,
the chairman of the working group
Chain of Custody of Forest Based Products – Requirements
According to the decisions of the board of EstonianForest Certification Council from the 28th of Dec., 2004 and 29th of September, 2006, the Annex 4 of PEFC Technical Document is an integral part of EstonianForest Certification Scheme and will be fully applied in chain of custody certification in Estonia.
In order to see the document:
Annex 1
Recommendatory Regulations to Verify the Origin of Timber.
The terms used in the Annex 1 (hereinafter as Regulations):
Company – thebody who transports, purchases or processes the roundwood and applies for the certificate of COC
Supplier – the body that sells or transfers roundwood to the company having a COC certificate
Timber trade documents – the act on transferring of roundwood or contract on expropriation of timber or any other document enacted in Estonian legislation by which the transfer of roundwood or wood products is fixed (if the legislation does not demand the drawing up of such a document, the company can decide by itself about the form and content of the document but considering the requirements of the current document).
I Applicability of the Regulations
1.1.The Regulations is used for the companies dealing with the transportation, purchasing or processing of the roundwood. The Regulations is not applied for the companies processing, packaging and marketing of timber, but who do not acquire the roundwood (who are not primary buyers of the roundwood). The primary and secondary processors shall compile by themselves the rules by which the origin of the wood can be verified.
1.2.The receiver can use the PEFC logo on timber products (processed timber) only in cases if the primary processor of the wood has a COC certificate.
1.3.The document “Chain of Custody of Forest Based Products – Requirements” will be applied if Regulations is in a contradiction with the mentioned documents.
1.4.Recognizing, that companies participating in the wood flow chain have different production capacity and their activities differ regarding the spheres of their activities, the company can change or amend the Regulations on the approval of the certification body, but, nevertheless, ensuring that the purposes of the Regulations can be achieved.
1.5.The rules for chain of custody certification will be reviewed after 5 year period. The revision work will be initiated by EMSN who will also elaborate and approve the procedure rules for revision. In the revision of rules the participation of all relevant stakeholders has to be guaranteed
II. The purpose
The company must create and maintain such a system for its operations which would ensure the use of only such timber which originates from the forest whose owner has a certificate of forest management, or can guarantee by other means, that forest law provisions and the principles of sustainable forest management have not been breached in logging operations when the timber originates from the non-certified forest.
The Regulations can be applied for verification of the origin of the wood, which comes from certified forest as well as for wood, that is cut from non-certified forest.
III. General rules for verification of the origin of the timber
3.1. The company shall form the timber trade documents in a manner that they would have cadastral code of the forest where timber originates.
For this purpose the cadastral number is marked to the timber trade documents. The number is unique because it belongs to every land lot regardless of their quantity in one land holding and ownership status.
The area (name of the forest holding, rural municipality, county) where the timber originates can be identified with the help of the cadastral number/code (even in case of many traders of the wood between the forest owner and a final buyer)[2].
3.2. The company shall draw up the timber trade documents in such a form, that it would be obvious that the timber originates from the:
a)PEFC certified forest;
b)From the forest certified under any other certification system;
c)Non-certified forest
The data presented by the supplier can be easily verified by the company due to the access to cadastral code of the land holding. The informational request regarding to identify if the owner of the forest of such cadastral code has a valid forest management certificate, can be communicated to the certification body.
3.3. Information about the certification of the forest and about the cadastral code has to be indicated in the timber trade documents even in circumstances when timber is sold between the companies both having a COC certificate.
3.4. The company has to draw up the timber trade documents in a form revealing if the supplier has COC certificate.
3.5. After the approval of the certification body the company can apply the period of transition, after which the cadastral code and the information about the certification of the forest, where the timber originates, has to be marked in all timber trade documents.
3.6. The company nominates the person who is responsible for the existing of recording the above described information in the contracts to be concluded with the suppliers. In the case of the different procurement areas/purchasing storages there can be more persons who are responsible for the fulfilment of the latter duty, but a named person has to be nominated who would be responsible as regards for the whole company.
IV The regulations for carry out the audits for verification of the origin of the procured timber
4.1. The purpose of the audit
For verify of the correctness of data given by the suppliers, the company has to control the accuracy of the presented data by identifying the origin of concrete supplied timber by using the method of sample taken at randomly.
4.2. The audit means the identification of the origin of the timber by using the Regulations. In the course of one audit the origin of all the timber of the two transactions is controlled.
4.3. The company has to determine the frequency of the audits. The minimum frequency of the audits is:
1)for the companies procuring more than 30 000 m³ of roundwood per year – audit after every procured 5 000 m³ in relation with a separate procurement area/purchasing storage;
2)for the companies procuring from 10 000 to 30 000 m³ of roundwood per year – audit after every procured 3 000 m³ in relation with a separate procurement area/purchasing storage;
3)for the companies procuring less than 10 000 m³ of roundwood per year – audit in relation with a separate procurement area/purchasing storage not less than six times in a year.
4.4. The different frequency of the audits considering the size and the extent of the activities of a compnay can be agreed with the certification body.
4.5. The audit has to be carried out within one month since the amount of timber indicated in provision 4.3. has been procured.
4.6. The suppliers will be involved to in the audit for facilitating the processes. The company will carry out the audit independently if the supplier does not participate in the audit.
4.7. Example for carrying out the audit
4.7.1. The website of the Land Board can be used for carrying out the audit (
click “avalik teenus”
click “kiirpäring maaregistrist”
click “katastritunnus” (or "kinnistu täpne nimetus; vald; maakond")
With the help of this the following information can be received:
-the name of the real estate;
-the number of the real estate and location (village; rural municipality; county)
-the size of the real estate (it is also possible to see the area of the forestland)
-main map 1: 2000 or aero photo 1: 10 000 (it enables to assess the forest resource)
4.7.2. Having information about the rural municipality and county, it is possible to reach (with the help of the web sites of the Environmental Services) to the local forestry specialist, from whom the providing of the following information can be requested:
-has the forest owner of forestland with such cadastral code and name of the real estate submitted the forest use notification and what is the felling volume marked in this document;
-is the felling as a planned activity accepted by the local forestry specialist and has the monitoring of the felling area been exercised by the forestry specialist;
-to ask for the information for the finding of the cadastral unit in a nature.
4.8. The information request will be made to the certification body for ascertaining whether the forest with such cadastral code is certified.
4.9. If there will be a doubt about legality of the cuttings or about compliance with the principles of sustainable forest management after the controlling of the felling area, and if it is not possible to get relevant information from the state authorities, the company assesses the conformity of fellings with the Estonian Forest Standard.
4.10. An appropriate document will be drawn up on the results of the controlling the felling area:
PROTOCOL OF AUDIT ON ORIGIN OF THE ROUNDWOOD
The representative of the company fixes in the protocol, whether the land unit shown as the origin of the wood could be the origin of that timber, and has the felling been in accordance with the law.
The following rules have to be abided in forming the protocol and maintaining the records:
-if the audit is carried out with the representative of supplier, the both parties will sign the protocol;
-if the supplier does not participate in the audit for some reason, he receives a copy of the protocol;
-from each protocol a copy is sent to the person responsible for certification of COC in the whole company;
-the results of the audits are documented according to the recording rules applied in the company. The results of the audit have to be clearly fixed.
-The protocols of the audits are maintained at least seven years.
4.11. The rights of the certification body to get acquainted with the results of the audit
The certification body has a right to demand the presentation of the results of the audit at any time. If certification body doubts in the results of the audit he may carry out a repeated audit either independently or together with the company.
4.12. Responsible person
The company has to determine the person carrying the general responsibility on the whole company as regards to the controlling of correctness of timber procurement and carrying out the audits.
5. The rules for ensuring the quality of applicability of the Regulations
5.1. The company has an obligation to announce to the Estonian Forest Certification Council (abbreviation EMSN in Estonian) the information on all timber transactions in an electronic form. The company must inform the amount of the timber taken in the previous month, and the cadastral code of it, for the 10th day of each subsequent month.
5.2. EMSN operates as a holder of the database, where the amount and origin (cadastral code) can be seen of the timber which is taken for the transportation or processing by the companies having a COC certificate in Estonia. EMSN must safeguard the confidentiality of the data.
5.3. The provisions 5.1. and 5.2. shall be applied after acquiring the sufficient technical competence by EMSN.
The specified regulations for using the above- indicated data would be elaborated by the EMSN with the help of consultations with all interested groups.
6. Consequences if it becomes evident that non-certified timber is purchased as certified or non-certified timber is supplied as a product of illegal logging.