Forest Services
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Forest ServicesThe Challenge The forests of the world have been declining at an exponential rate for several decades. Currently a significant proportion of the world trade of timber originates from areas where the trees are felled illegally. Most of the forests in developing countries have been logged without regard for sustainability of the timber resource and associated values the forest provides to society. As such, large forest areas are being lost to agricultural conversion or degraded due to poor logging practices and uncontrolled illegal logging. The market is now beginning to demand that all timber come from sources that are legal, working towards certification or fully certified by independent organizations. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the main forest certification system and standard that is recognized by the market and non-governmental organizations. However, a very small amount of the global forest area has so far been certified as well managed. Tropical forests are still being logged without regard for resource sustainability or its environmental and social consequences. The SGS solution
Transparent timber trade The SGS QUALIFOR programme is accredited by the FSC to certify forest management based on the FSC Principles and Criteria and trace certified products under a chain of custody systems. Although general logging systems being used currently by forestry organizations, many are not close to being ready for forest certification. Certification Support Programme (CSP) serves to bridge the gap between current logging practices and forest certification using a formal auditing programme that provides a step-wise approach in line with the WWF Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN). The SGS (M) CSP provides auditing of continual improvement based on an agreed schedule and allows trading of raw material and manufactured products under a CSP Certificate of Origin during development and implementation of the forest management system. The SGS Timber Tracking Programme has been newly established to evaluate legal compliance of forest management and track timber and products through processing and trading to the retail market. A Natural Resource Monitoring Programme allows governments to outsource the execution of selected public services to an independent organization to ensure forest laws and regulations are being followed and public revenue is properly collected. Our expertise includes a.o.
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