A simple overview of the essence of certification

With the increased focus on matters certification, it is perhaps worthwhile to stand back and lay out in very simple terms exactly what markets are looking for and what we as suppliers need to do to meet this requirement.

Markets (including NCT) use certification as a tool to demonstrate to customers in a credible, independently audited, manner, that they are:

• sourcing material that is sustainable,
• timber is ethically (and legally) harvested and sourced,
• moves along a traceable supply chain,
• and is from a verifiable source.

Certification is also used to demonstrate corporate responsibility. There are various certification routes that different markets look at, and these mostly include the better-known Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®), Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification® (PEFC®), or for biomass material, the Sustainable Biomass Program® (SBP®). A recent acronym that you will have heard bandied about is EUDR, which is the European Union Regulation on Deforestation-free Products. This is not certification, but a regulation that must be complied with to allow product entry to the EU. Again, certification is a tool that can be used to help demonstrate compliance with EUDR. It is worth noting that while one may not need to comply with EUDR for sale into Asian markets, those Asian markets will often require EUDR-compliance as they process your input and then sell this product on into the EU. Which still means you will need to be EUDR-compliant for sale into Asia.

PEFC & FSC forest management certification requires a grower to comply to set standards. You are then audited against these standards and can then sell your timber as certified if found compliant. This timber is the top tier of what NCT sources for its markets and is reflected by the payment of a premium (currently R50/t).

Most times this also includes market access, as key markets require certain percentages of certified timber, which in turn may have allocation implications for NCT members. There are various routes that suppliers may gain forest management certification.

This includes either joining the NCT FSC group scheme or another group scheme. In either case, the certification credits are recognised. Underpinning forest management certification is legal compliance. This is an issue that many suppliers may grapple with, given the complexity of legislation in South Africa. You can use certification as a tool to assist you with this.

Controlled Wood (or Controlled Material) is timber that complies to a lower standard. This lower standard includes legally harvested timber, which in our context is taken to mean timber that is not stolen. Controlled wood evaluation includes the application of a due diligence system to minimise the inclusion of undesirable timber.

For NCT this includes the use of the supplier’s Code of Conduct, source declaration form completion, use of the NCT app to pinpoint the source and state of the timber. Controlled wood is vital to NCT as our own mills cannot physically separate chips, and to claim credits for certified timber, this may not be mixed with anything except controlled wood (the claim is then made on a percentage basis).

Chain-of-Custody (CoC) refers to the ability to be able to track or trace the timber along the entire supply chain, i.e. from harvest source, the transport, delivery to market, sale on to the next market and so on.

For example, timber grown on a forest management certified unit is sold as certified, this timber is tracked and the certification credit for this timber is recorded along the chain. Coupled to this tracking and tracing is material accounting (once certified and controlled material are mixed).

Material accounting is vital in that it informs the essence of certification Manager – amount of credit that can be claimed when selling material.

CoC forms an integral portion of demonstrating compliance with EUDR. EUDR adds another layer to certification in that NCT is now required to be able pinpoint the compartment from where all timber is sourced. In the case of suppliers with no data in NCT’s geodatabase, NCT requires that suppliers use the NCT App to provide an image of the prospective timber supply using the app.

This image is geo-referenced and NCT uses this geo-reference to map the block of timber (adding this to the NCT geodatabase). Members whose timber is already mapped will use the NCT App to place their orders, adding the compartment number that they will be supplying from.

The underlying theme is that NCT is obliged (and wants) to only source timber that is ethically (and legally) grown and harvested and supplied along a transparent (and legal) supply chain from a source that can be verified. In addition, our markets are demonstrating an appetite for more certified timber, over and above what we are already supplying.

To be clear: NCT is in no rush to accept any timber against which we have even the slightest doubt or concern. If we have doubt, we walk away so as to not jeopardise the greater whole.

Source: NCT

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