Malaysian timber scheme rejected by Dutch Board of Appeal
The Board of Appeal of the Dutch Environmental Foundation has ruled to uphold a judgement made last year by the Dutch Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC). TPAC found that the PEFC endorsed, Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) fails to meet key sustainability criteria.
On 19 October 2011, the Board of Appeal of the Dutch Environmental Foundation ruled to uphold the latest judgment by the Dutch Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC) regarding the Malaysian PEFC-endorsed forestry scheme MTCS: the scheme does not currently conform to the timber procurement criteria of the Dutch government. The Board of Appeal found that TPAC had good grounds for judging that the MTCS scheme does not provide sufficient assurance on key sustainability criteria such as customary rights, biodiversity protection and conversion of natural forest.
According to ITTO, the Netherlands is the largest market for Malaysian timber in the EU and accounts for 49% of exports of MTCS certified timber products. In 2010, the Netherlands imported around 100,000 m3 of hardwood lumber from Malaysia. The Netherlands has the highest per-capita consumption of tropical timber in Europe.
Long-standing debate
The MTCS scheme has been subject to a long-standing debate among stakeholders, with the MTCS scheme on one side and a coalition of Dutch NGOs on the other, including Greenpeace Netherlands, the Netherlands Centre for Indigenous Peoples (NCIV), Friends of the Earth Netherlands, ICCO and WWF Netherlands.
When TPAC first endorsed the MTCS scheme in March 2010, the NGO coalition immediately filed an appeal, expressing concern about some weaknesses of the MTCS scheme. This led the TPAC to re-evaluate and overturn its former judgment in October 2010. In December 2010, the MTCS scheme filed an appeal in a move to re-gain the endorsement. This appeal has been dismissed with the Board of Appeal’s decision.
Response by MTCC
In a press release, the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) regrets the decision: “MTCC concludes that the outcome of this process undermines the efforts, especially by developing tropical forest countries like Malaysia, to implement timber certification as a market-linked tool to achieve the sustainable management of their natural forests. […]”, said Mr Chew Lye Teng, Chief Executive Officer of MTCC.
MTCC further highlights that “contrary to the SMK ruling, the Danish, British, French and UK governments and the German municipality of Hamburg have recognised the MTCS as providing assurance of sustainable timber”.
Sources: TPAC, MTCC, Greenpeace
