SGS

Based in Geneva, SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance) is a global organisation performing inspection, verification, testing and certification for many products and services.  

SGS and the UK government's timber policy

The Forestry & Wood Product Services include forest certification as well as independent legal timber verification services designed to operate within different frameworks as follows.

1) SGS ‘Timber Legality & Traceability Verification (TLTV)’ is the voluntary, company-level programme that provides third party verification that requirements for legality have been met at the forest source. The programme includes both a ‘Legal Production’ of source standard (TLTV–LP) and a Chain of Custody standard (TLTV–CoC). SGS issues verification statements to organisations confirming that they have met the requirements of the TLTV standard or an equivalent, local legality standard. A list of organisations with valid verification statements is published on the SGS website, which as of 26 August 2008 included 9 TLTV–LP statements and ten TLTV–COC statements. Evidence of timber from this programme also includes on-product stickers and an on/off-product mark. The TLTV programme has been assessed against the UK Government’s Category B requirements for legality, it was found to be in compliance and can be accepted as evidence of legality.

Implemented country-wide, national ‘Legal Timber Validation’ schemes can be set up on a voluntary or mandatory basis - or a combination of these where voluntary verification is then validated by an official government authority to constitute a timber legality assurance system:

2) The SGS ‘Mandatory Legal Timber Validation’ (MLTV) system is a mandatory, country-level approach, which has been successfully implemented in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ecuador and Papua New Guinea. Assessment of each national producer country scheme by the UK CPET with the required degree of detail will be done separately.

3) The SGS ‘Voluntary Legal Timber Validation’ (VLTV) system is a voluntary, national- or regional-level government programme, which currently operates in the Far-Eastern Russian region of Khabarovsk. VLTV programmes will be assessed by CPET on a case-by case basis.   

Contact:

Antoine de La Rochefordière
SGS Forestry Monitoring Programme 
Email: antoine.delarochefordiere@sgs.com
Web: www.sgs.com/forestry-monitoring