In many parts of the world such as the EU and USA the
Chain of Custody (COC) certification is becoming an industrial standard
for companies buying and selling timber, furniture, panel and paper
products to demonstrate that they source their products with responsibility.
Over 50% of timber brought into the EU is now legal and responsibly
sourced. The demand for certified timber is increasing as more and more
central and local government and private development projects insist on
it.
Companies that complete the Chain of Custody
Certification are seen to be environmentally focused and to have proved
they run a responsible businesses. Having completed the requirements of
the Chain of Custody, they will be allowed to use the FSC logos on their
products and stationary, which will add credibility to their company.
However,........
Why should a company have an FSC Chain of Custody
certification in place if the timber itself is not FSC certified at the
final shackle of the chain? In other words why should a wooden
house supplier,
like us, pay thousands of dollars for an FSC Chain of Custody certification while
none of the timber felling concessions supplying the wood used in wooden
house prefabrication is FSC certified? A certification seems to be waste
of money and only to the advantage of the accreditation body who "takes care" of all the paperwork, like in the
80's
with the ISO Certification. As long as the timber at the felling sources
is not FSC certified, any Chain of Custody certification for that
particular wood species can be considered useless and does not have any
meaning.
In order to back our
statement above we sent an e-mail to the FSC organization. This is their
answer: "If the timber isn’t certified, no FSC claims may be made in
relation to products deriving from it, whether or not a certification is
in place".
We kindly inform the visitor that
so far only a few wood
species in Indonesia have been FSC certified, such as Sulawesi Teak,
Java Teak and Mahogany, but not any of the species which
are generally used for the fabrication of prefab houses, timbers such as Bangkirai, Merbau,
Iron wood, Nyatoh, Kempas, Keruwing, etc.
Now we wonder what is closer to the
truth.......Having the FSC logo used on wood products and company letter
heads for wood species which are not at all FSC certified or, - as what
we do -, use timber which is obtained from legal timber felling
concessions, overlooked by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry as to
guarantee the compliance of the timber felling concession with the Ministry's
reforestation program.
Nonetheless, we will forthwith join the FSC club at the very
moment that timber felling concessions for Bangkirai, Merbau, Iron wood
and/or Nyatoh and others
have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Related article on our web site:
What is our company doing against the
deforestation of the Indonesian forests. Read
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