Another four State forest management units (FMUs), namely Johor, Kedah, Perak and Negeri Sembilan, were recently awarded the Certificate for Forest Management by the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) under its timber certification scheme. The Certificate provides the assurance of legal and sustainable source.
Since the operation of the MTCC scheme in October 2001 using a phased approach, all the eight timber producing States in Peninsular Malaysia, with a total of 4.74 million hectares of permanent reserved forest, have been assessed against the Malaysian Criteria, Indicators, Activities and Standards of Performance for Forest Management Certification (MC&I), which is based on the ITTO Criteria and Indicators.
In December 2001, MTCC awarded the Certificate for Forest Management to Pahang, Selangor and Terengganu, based on field assessments and recommendations made by the independent assessor, SGS (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. However, due to some non-compliances observed during the reassessment carried out in March last year, the Certificate for Terengganu was suspended with effect from November 2002. The suspension on Terengganu has now been lifted following verification of the corrective actions taken to address the non-compliances.
Johor, Kedah, Perak and Negeri Sembilan were assessed for the first time in 2001. Since non-compliances were issued to all the States, reassessments were carried out early this year. The four States have now been awarded the Certificate for Forest Management. Kelantan, which was first assessed in September last year, is presently being reassessed to verify the corrective actions taken to address the non-compliances. With seven States having been awarded the Certificate for Forest Management, a total of 4.11 million hectares of the permanent reserved forest in Peninsular Malaysia is now certified under the MTCC scheme.
The number of timber companies awarded the Certificate for Chain-of-Custody has also been increasing steadily. The Certificate allows the companies to export MTCC-certified timber products using the MTCC logo. Recently, another nine companies were awarded the Certificate for Chain-of-Custody, bringing the total number of certified companies to 38. Many more companies have applied to MTCC to be assessed for chain-of-custody certification. By the end of September 2003, a total of 3,882 m3 of MTCC-certified sawn timber has been exported to The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and France. More information on the certified forest areas and companies can be obtained from the MTCC’s website at https://mtcc.com.my