FSC International meets the Dutch procurement criteria for timber. This is the conclusion of reassessment of FSC by TPAC, the Dutch Timber Procurement Assessment Committee. Commissioned by the Dutch State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management, TPAC carries out assessments of certification systems for acceptance by the sustainable procurement policy of the Dutch government.
The judgement was preceded by a thorough review procedure. The relevant criteria for FSC are the requirements for: Sustainable Forest Management (SFM); Chain of Custody (CoC); Development, Application, and Management of Certification Systems (DAM); and Procedure on Endorsement of Certifications Systems by a Meta-System (PEM). In order to gain insight in how the FSC standards and protocols are implemented into practice, TPAC has also assessed four country certification systems that are endorsed by FSC, namely, i.e. Indonesia, Germany, Gabon, and Sweden. For every assessment, TPAC has invited stakeholders to share their knowledge and experience with these certification systems via an online forum. TPAC investigated the contributions and, has incorporated them into the final judgement about the FSC system.
TPAC has advised the Dutch State Secretary for Infrastructure and the Environment to continue the acceptance of FSC International with regards to the Dutch procurement policy for a period of five years. The State Secretary will decide on the continuation of the acceptance. Currently, it is not known when this decision will take place. The currently approved systems, as well as the public assessment reports, can be found via Judgements - TPAC (smk.nl).
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