Certification

Steps to certification

Being involved in the certification of forests ourselves we are acutely aware that it is often a long, exceedingly costly and complicated process. We are also aware that it will take time and effort to convince DLH’s suppliers about the benefits of credible certification. Often, our suppliers do not manage their own forest concessions or even have a direct contact to the forests and hence may not have the means to ensure certification in the short term.

As a result, we view certification as a process where the Good Supplier Program is the first step and FSC Certification the ultimate goal.

Independent Verification of legality

An important step on the road to full certification is independent verification of legality. DLH works with two different levels of verification of legality.

The first step is Verification for Legal Origin (VLO). This is a scheme developed by the auditing company Smartwood in 2005 in close co-operation with DLH and the consultant company, Global Forestry Services (GFS).

DLH began working with suppliers to implement VLO in 2006 in the Malaysian province of Sabah in 2006. A growing number of Malaysian suppliers are signing up to the program and suppliers in Indonesia are now also applying for VLO. We expect to extend the scheme to Brazil in 2008, followed by other relevant countries in the near future.

VLO requires that the documentation for the legality of the timber and wood products is in place. The scheme includes landowner rights, the legal right to harvest as well as implementing a system for tracing the timber back to the forest.

The next step in the process is the Verification of Legal Compliance (VLC). These schemes add additional requirements to ensure full legal compliance. The VLC schemes also contain basic social aspect regarding workers’ rights and health and safety.

DLH’s subsidiary CIB has obtained VLC verification (through the SGS TLTV program) for all its areas not yet FSC certified. DLH is also supporting our suppliers in the process and, as a result, DLH is already in a position to supply VLC verified timber from Central African Republic, Cameroon and Gabon.

If you would like to know more about certification and verification then please downloade our certification guide using the link in the box on the right.