In a recent move, the Danish Ministry of the Environment has included the MTCC timber certification scheme as one of the accepted schemes in its Environmental Guidelines for Purchasing Tropical Timber.
The Guidelines have been published by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency and the DanishForest and Nature Agency, and is the result of deliberation of a steering group comprising the Danish Government, NGOs, trade and industry. The aim of the Guidelines is to make it easier for public and semi-public organisations to ensure that the tropical timber they purchase is produced in a sustainable and legal manner. These Guidelines will also be of use to private institutions and individuals.
In the Guidelines, it is mentioned that, besides the FSC scheme, there are national schemes that have been established, one of them being the MTCC scheme in Malaysia under which there are 2.3 million hectares of MTCC certified forest, divided between three certificates, all in natural forest (Note: By the end of October 2003, MTCC Certificates had been issued to seven State Forest Management Units (FMUs) which account for a total area of 4.11 million hectares).
Under the section on “Requirements and documentation” of the Guidelines, it is stated that
“MTCC is regarded as providing an adequate guarantee for legal forest management, on their way towards sustainability, whilst marketing of MTCC certified wood in Denmark will require the attachment of a CoC certificate from Malaysia”.
The English translation of the Guidelines can be downloaded from www.skovognatur.dk.