Comparative study of Danish, UK, Dutch and Belgium national criteria

Six EU member states – Denmark, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany- have developed timber procurement policies (June 2008). Timber procurement policies are a key element of the FLEGT action plan and other member states - Italy, Spain, Sweden and Finland - are in the progress of developing policies.

France and Germany refer to certification schemes as verification of evidence, while Denmark, UK, Netherlands and Belgium have established their own criteria for legality and sustainability with a view to assess certification schemes, or other evidence, against those.

Denmark, UK, Netherlands and Belgium are working together to promote policy alignment and following a Copenhagen workshop on timber procurement policies in April 2008, a framework was developed to compare, at a detailed level, the various criteria for legal and sustainable timber, developed at nationals levels in the four countries.

The objective of the comparative study is to share experiences with Member States currently developing a timber procurement policy and to give other Member States an understanding of the key components of legality and sustainability in a timber procurement context.

Comparison of timber procurement policy criteria for forest standards, certification, accreditation, Chain of Custody and labeling Denmark, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Belgium Download PDF

The comparison is based the following draft and final criteria available at the time (June 2008): 

Denmark

Draft Criteria for Legal and Sustainable Timber and Assessment of Certification Schemes, April 2007 Download PDF

The Netherlands

Dutch Procurement Criteria for Timber. Principles and criteria for: Sustainable forest management (SFM) Chain of Custody (CoC) Development, application and management of certification systems (DAM), June 2008 Download PDF

United Kingdom

Criteria for Evaluating Certification Schemes (Category A Evidence) Second Edition May 2006. CPET Download PDF

Belgium

Definition and criteria’s for wood from sustainably managed forests. As defined in the circular letter P&O/DO/2 concerning the public procurement policy of the federal Government, aimed at promoting the use of timber and wood from sustainably managed forests. February 2006 Download PDF (Official version in Dutch and French)  An unofficial English version is quoted in this current framework.  

NOTE: Discussions on new and revised Belgium criteria are ongoing.