8 October 2004

Public briefing paper: SmartWood group forest management certification assessment of FECOFUN

ArchiveThis item comes from ANSAB’s earlier website and is shown as it was published at the time. Names, offices and contact details may have changed.More from the archives →

Introduction

The SmartWood Program of the Rainforest Alliance is conducting a group certification assessment of the forest management of the Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal (FECOFUN) in Kathmandu, Nepal. The assessment is primarily focused on non-timber forest products. The assessment will take place September 27 to October 8, 2004

SmartWood (SW) is a program of the Rainforest Alliance created in 1989; it is the oldest forestry certification program in the world and has been accredited by the internationally recognized Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The Forest Stewardship Council is an international non-profit organization founded in 1993 to support environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests. SmartWood provides third-party forest management and chain of custody certification services worldwide. If the forest operations are found to be in conformance with FSC standards, a certificate is issued, enabling the landowner to bring product to market as "certified forest products", and to use FSC trademark logo.

Scope of the Certification Assessment The group forest management certification assessment will assess the environmental, silvicultural and socioeconomic aspects of the forestry operations of FECOFUN members, using the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) SmartWood Interim Nepal Guidelines for Assessing Non-Timber Forest Products. To obtain a copy of these guidelines, please contact SmartWood by telephone, FAX or email listed below.

Assessment Team Composition – Four resource management and socioeconomic specialists will conduct the assessment; three Nepali assessors and a senior SmartWood staff team leader. The assessors have over 50 years combined experience working in forestry, rural economic development, social forestry, and non-timber forest products. The team leader has 11 years experience conducting FSC/SmartWood Assessments. The three Nepali assessors have participated in SmartWood’s forest management and chain of custody assessor training programs.

Assessment Steps and Schedule – Following is a short description of the certification process and a tentative agenda:

  • Assessment organization – The SmartWood team will conduct interviews and review available information of the group leader, FECOFUN, before departing to field sites for assessment work.
  • Field assessments – The team will visit FECOFUN candidate group members.
  • Final assessment briefing – Prior to departure, the team will meet FECOFUN staff to finalize their data collection. They will not present the final conclusions of the assessment at this time; those conclusions will come after the report production process.
  • Draft report production – The assessment team will produce a confidential draft report that will be circulated for comment to Group Manager and a minimum of two independent peer reviewers.
  • Certification decision – Upon receipt of comments on the draft report from FECOFUN and independent peer reviewers, SmartWood headquarters will reach a decision on certification.

Public Comment We welcome input (either public or confidential) on FECOFUN forest management operations at any stage of the assessment process. We must, however, receive comments prior to November 1, 2004, to take them into consideration in reaching a certification decision. Please submit all comments in writing by post, FAX or email to the SmartWood office in Jakarta, Indonesia Unless you request otherwise, these comments will be kept confidential and are solely for the purposes of assessing FECOFUN Group Forest Management Operations.

Contacting SmartWood – You may contact SmartWood in the following way. We suggest you direct your communications to Adam Grant or Jeff Hayward.

  • Email – [email protected]; [email protected]
  • Telephone – 62-21-7179-0038 FAX – 62-21-7179-2123
  • Mail address – SmartWood Asia Pacific Office Wisma Anugraha, Lt. 1 Jl. Taman Kemang 32B Jakarta Selatan 12730 Indonesia