Malaysia has adopted a new national standard for forest management certification, developed in line with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) criteria.
Development of the standard involved several meetings of the National Steering Committee and regional consultations held in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak.
Heiko Liedeker, executive director of FSC, was in Malaysia on the last day of the consultation. He said the process to develop a standard for FSC endorsement was “well on track” and assured stakeholders that FSC viewed its collaboration with the Malaysian Timber Certification Council as a great opportunity to demonstrate FSC’s acceptance of work pertaining to timber certification in developing countries.
Mr Liedeker acknowledged the difficulties in implementing an international system of accreditation that would be broadly acceptable to all stakeholder groups and said FSC would become more proactive in helping developing countries to develop FSC-endorsable standards.
The MTCC is to continue negotiations with FSC towards full FSC endorsement of the standard
