Forest Management Certification Report Sgs
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SGS QUALIFOR Doc. Number: AD 36-A-05 (Associated Document) Doc. Version date: 24 May 2007 Page: 1 of 61 FOREST MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATION REPORT SECTION A: PUBLIC SUMMARY Project Nr: 7708-ZA York Timbers (Pty) Ltd Client: Web Page: www.york.co.za Address: P/Bag X518, Sabie, 1260 Country: South Africa SGS-FM/COC-000809 Certificate Type: Certificate Nr. Forest Management/Chain of Custody SGS-CW-000809 Date of Issue 03 June 2008 Date of expiry: 02 June 2013 SGS Forest Management Standard (AD33) adapted for South Africa version 04 of 29 March Evaluation Standard 2010 Forest Zone: Temperate Total Certified Area 94 102 ha Scope: Forest Management of exotic plantations of York Timbers (Pty) Ltd in South Africa for the production of FSC-Pure softwood and hardwood timber products, and the purchase, transport and sale of both certified and controlled wood, using the transfer system Location of the FMUs There are two main FMU’s, one located in the Highveld of Mpumalanga in the Jessivale area included in the scope and the other located in the Escarpment (Lowveld) of Mpumalanga where the Head office is also located, in the town of Sabie. Company Contact Dave Malloch Brown Person: Address: P/Bag X518, Sabie, 1260 Tel: (013) 764-9200 / 082 805 5966 Fax (013) 764-3245 / 1027 Email: [email protected] Evaluation dates: Re-Evaluation 14-18 January 2008 Surveillance 1 26-28 November 2008 Surveillance 2 23-25 November 2009; Clearance of Findings Assessment 29-30 March 2010 SGS South Africa (Qualifor Programme) 58 Melville Road, Booysens - PO Box 82582, Southdale 2185 -South Africa Systems and Services Certification Division t +27 11 681681-2500 f +27 11 681-2543 www.sgs.comwww.sgs.com/forestry AD 36-A-05 Page 2 of 61 Surveillance 3 15-18 November 2010; Clearance of Findings Assessment 14-15 February 2011 Surveillance 4 Copyright: © 2010 SGS South Africa (Pty) Ltd All rights reserved AD 36-A-05 Page 3 of 61 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. SCOPE OF CERTIFICATE .......................................................................................................................... 5 2. COMPANY BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................ 7 2.1 Ownership ........................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Company Key Objectives .................................................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Company History ................................................................................................................................................. 8 2.4 Organisational Structure ...................................................................................................................................... 8 2.5 Ownership and Use Rights .................................................................................................................................. 9 2.6 Other Land Uses ................................................................................................................................................. 9 2.7 Non-certified Forests ........................................................................................................................................... 9 3. FOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ............................................................................................................ 9 3.1 Bio-physical setting ............................................................................................................................................. 9 3.2 For the area under evaluation and the region, describe its: ................................................................................. 9 3.3 History of use .................................................................................................................................................... 11 3.4 Planning process ............................................................................................................................................... 11 3.5 Harvest and regeneration .................................................................................................................................. 12 3.6 Monitoring processes ........................................................................................................................................ 13 4. SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT ....................................................................... 14 4.1 Social aspects ................................................................................................................................................... 14 4.2 Environmental aspects ...................................................................................................................................... 14 4.3 Administration, Legislation and Guidelines ........................................................................................................ 15 5. CHANGES IN MANAGEMENT, HARVESTING, SILVICULTURE AND MONITORING .......................... 18 6. PREPARATION FOR THE EVALUATION ................................................................................................ 19 6.1 Schedule ........................................................................................................................................................... 19 6.2 Team ................................................................................................................................................................. 19 6.3 Checklist Preparation ........................................................................................................................................ 19 6.4 Stakeholder notification ..................................................................................................................................... 20 7. THE EVALUATION .................................................................................................................................... 20 7.1 Opening meeting ............................................................................................................................................... 20 7.2 Document review ............................................................................................................................................... 20 7.3 Sampling and Evaluation Approach................................................................................................................... 20 7.4 Field assessments ............................................................................................................................................. 20 7.5 Stakeholder interviews ...................................................................................................................................... 20 7.6 Summing up and closing meeting ..................................................................................................................... 21 8. EVALUATION RESULTS ...........................................................................................................................21 8.1 Findings related to the general QUALIFOR Programme ................................................................................... 22 PRINCIPLE 1: Compliance with law and FSC Principles ...................................................................................... 22 PRINCIPLE 2: Tenure and use rights and responsibilities ................................................................................... 23 PRINCIPLE 3: Indigenous peoples’ rights ............................................................................................................. 23 AD 36-A-05 Page 4 of 61 PRINCIPLE 4: Community relations and workers rights ........................................................................................ 24 PRINCIPLE 5: Benefits from the forest ................................................................................................................. 25 PRINCIPLE 6: Environmental impact .................................................................................................................... 26 PRINCIPLE 7: Management plan .......................................................................................................................... 29 PRINCIPLE 8: Monitoring and evaluation .............................................................................................................. 30 PRINCIPLE 9: High Conservation Value Forests ................................................................................................... 31 PRINCIPLE 10: Plantations ................................................................................................................................... 32 9. CERTIFICATION DECISION...................................................................................................................... 34 10. MAINTENANCE OF CERTIFICATION ...................................................................................................... 34 11. RECORD OF CORRECTIVE ACTION REQUESTS (CARs) .................................................................... 36 12. RECORD OF OBSERVATIONS ................................................................................................................ 53 13. RECORD OF STAKEHOLDER COMMENTS AND INTERVIEWS ..........................................................