As you have been made aware, with the PEFC endorsement of the MTCS, the certificates awarded to the MTCS-certified Forest Management Units (FMUs) and timber companies will have to be replaced by accredited certificates awarded by PEFC-notified Certification Bodies (CBs). You were also reminded that only such accredited certification will qualify the FMUs and timber companies concerned to use the PEFC Logo under the MTCS.
With regard to this, MTCC is pleased to inform you that for forest management certification, STANDARDS MALAYSIA has recently granted accreditation to the two MTCS-notified CBs, i.e. SGS (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. and SIRIM QAS International Sdn. Bhd.
SGS (Malaysia) was granted the accreditation on 8 December 2009, while SIRIM QAS was accredited on 10 December 2009.
As accredited CBs, SGS (Malaysia) and SIRIM QAS are now eligible to issue accredited certificates for forest management under the MTCS. The issuance of an accredited certificate will allow the FMU concerned to be referred to as a PEFC-certified FMU, and the logs originating from the certified FMU as PEFC-certified logs.
However, please note that up till today, no FMU has been issued with an accredited certificate under the MTCS. As such, no PEFC-certified logs are as yet available from the natural forests in Malaysia.
For chain of custody certification, two of the MTCS-notified CBs [SIRIM QAS and SGS (Malaysia)] have been granted accreditation by STANDARDS MALAYSIA. The third MTCS-notified CB, Moody International Certification (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., has already submitted its application for accreditation, and is awaiting a decision by STANDARDS MALAYSIA.
SIRIM QAS was granted an extension of its accreditation scope for product certification to include CoC certification of forest based products on 27 July 2009. Based on this, SIRIM QAS became the first PEFC-notified CB under the MTCS and was issued with the PEFC Logo license number PEFC/34-44-01 on 23 October 2009, which allows SIRIM QAS to use the PEFC Logo on the accredited CoC certificates awarded under the MTCS. To date, SIRIM QAS has awarded a total of 13 accredited CoC certificates to timber companies operating in Malaysia.
SGS (Malaysia) was granted accreditation on 16 December 2009, and has yet to obtain the PEFC notification and be issued with a PEFC Logo license number. As such, no accredited CoC certificates have been issued by SGS (Malaysia) under the MTCS.
For more information and updates please visit www.mtcc.com.my
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