1              Certification process

This program involves:

- Client makes formal application by completing the client agreement form.

- Global-Mark will complete a document review of the company Policy Manual and a sample of 2 or 3 management system procedures (this is usually done off site), and Global-Mark will issue a document review report.

- When the Client requests it Global-Mark will perform a pre-certification review to ensure that the system is in place and is likely to pass the certification review  A pre-certification review report is then issued to the Client.  This activity is usually completed at the Client’s office.

- Global-Mark will then complete the on site certification review.  This includes an audit of the client’s operations, visit of sites and forests, interview with staff, review of records and witnessing of activities.  A review report will be issued, with review findings and a recommendation for or against certification will be made.

- Subject to the above review, Global-Mark will issue a Certificate of Approval.

2              In Simple Terms

Consumers and regulators are increasingly concerned about ensuring that resources and developments are performed within sustainable practices.

In recent years, the management of forests has become increasingly important with public concern now being acknowledged by regulators and large commodity traders, mills, retailers and users.

The Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) was specifically developed to offer a framework for managing forests and all their related community aspects in an accountable and transparent manner.

Certification will assist the Client to prove and demonstrate that they have sound systems, and are keeping them up-to-date, and in continued compliance.

3              Specific program definitions

The following definitions are from the JASANZ procedure or the AFS and apply to our certification program:

• AFS:  The Australian Forestry Standard, also known as Forest Management – Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural Criteria and Requirements for Wood Production - AS 4708: Forest Management - Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural Criteria and Requirements for Wood.

• Defined Forest Area: The forest manager needs to specify or define an area of forest (including land and water) to which the requirements of the AFS are applied. The defined forest area does not have to be a contiguous block or parcel of land. The forest manager will need to demonstrate management control over the defined forest area which allows them to achieve the requirements of the AFS.  Note: the intent of the above is to provide sufficient flexibility to allow forest managers to define the coverage of their AFS certificate in a way which reflects their business needs and differing operational situations. Nevertheless, it is intended that this guidance should preclude an organisation omitting elements of its operation which should be properly included in its defined forest area from the scope of its certification/registration.
• Defined Forest Area Register: The scope of the certification references an area of forest (including land and water) to which the requirements of the AFS are applied i.e. the defined forest area. The defined forest area is the area over which the forest manager has management control, whether as freehold, joint venture agreement or lease. It includes productive and non-productive forest areas, streamside reserves, conservation areas and roads etc.. The defined forest area is described by survey plans, legal title(s), gazettal notices or GIS shape files (coupes or similar). The defined forest area thus comprises the register of all separately described titles or coupes. The register forms the basis of the certification; is regularly updated by the forest manager; and is verified by Global-Mark. New areas added to the register are sampled as a specific subgroup at the time of each audit. Maps of the defined forest area at a scale no smaller than 1:250,000 shall be publicly available. The Client must have a system that can track the additions and/or deletions to the DFA between business reviews/audits and be able to provide areas and diagrammatic representation of any changes.
• Like-forest management unit: Plantations which should be grouped into active management phases. Native forests which should be grouped by forest type.  For example: eucalyptus forests; callitris and eucalypt woodland.  Where the forest type is extensive, the general topographical or geomorphological divisions should also be grouped.
• Group:  A 'group' is defined as a cohort of managers of small forest areas that are jointly developing, implementing or maintaining a forest management system designed to meet the requirements of the AFS, and are located within a forest region defined by similar forest types or a similar range of forest types, conditions or administrative arrangements.
• Stakeholder: An individual or organisation, usually locally or regionally based, who has an interest in the forest management on the DFA.

4              Specific program conditions

Who can Global-Mark offer services to?

4.1         Group certification

·         Group certification offers the opportunity for managers of small forest areas to join together and gain benefits of increased scale, while retaining management control of their forest;

·         It requires that all group members commit themselves to complying with the requirements of the AFS. Group members must be organised under an entity/body that is capable of entering an agreement with Global-Mark on the group's behalf. The group must maintain a register of members with relevant data such as the area participating in the group certification.

·         Sampling of organisations comprising a group is only permitted where all the requirements and rules defined below for multi-sited Clients can be applied to the group. For example, the legal entity referred to above must have the same authority and powers (e.g. to require all members to take corrective action) as the central office referred to below. In this case, a group can be considered to be a multi-sited organisation, and members can be sampled.

Rules for group certification

·         Each organisation in the group must go through the certification process concurrently and must operate on essentially similar documentation and procedures. Each organisation must present for certification at the same time.

·         The audit duration/auditor days are applied according to the number of organisations currently in the group and if the group numbers change, then the audit duration (and hence Global-Mark’s fees) will change accordingly.

·         One organisation must be the applicant and act as the contact point and coordinator for all communications and audit planning with the Global-Mark team.

·         A combined business review report may be provided covering all organisations in the group.

·         Acceptance of a cohort of managers of small forest areas as a group is at the discretion of Global-Mark.

4.2         Size of ownerships

·         The level and complexity of management needed to meet the requirements of the AFS will depend on the size, type and ownership of the forest being audited. In particular, small ownerships will not be expected to have the same level of documentation or management systems and procedures as larger ownerships. The determining factor is the risk of the forest management system failing to effectively and consistently achieve the forest management performance requirements, at the existing levels of documentation or system development.

·         To help define this within the AFS, guidance supplements have been prepared which relate specifically to ‘small’ and ‘medium and large’ forest management units. The complex nature of forests and forest management makes it impossible to provide an exact definition of these. In particular, in some situations it will be the size of the forest that is relevant (e.g. the scale and rate of felling) whereas in others it will be the size of the forestry enterprise that will determine what is expected. The following are interim and should be used as a guide:

§         Small - typically less than 1,000 hectares in size;

§         Medium - a forest area typically between 1,000–10,000 hectares in size;

§         Large - a forest area greater than 10,000 hectares.

·         Some independent forest managers act as resource managers for a number of clients each of whom owns a ‘small’ forest. However, the total area managed by the independent manager is not ‘small’. For the purposes of certification, some of the forest management performance requirements may still be interpreted as for ‘small’ ownerships, but others, particularly the management systems requirements, might be more appropriately interpreted as for ‘medium and large’.

4.3         Scale of requirements

Many of the requirements of the AFS, particularly those relating to forest operations and conservation, relate to proportions of the overall forest area. In applying such requirements, an appropriate scale must be decided which allows the forest manager to achieve the requirement in the way that is best suited to the nature of the forest. This is particularly important for:

·         large forest blocks, particularly single-species plantations;

·         holdings which are under common management but are physically fragmented (e.g. in estates with several blocks of forest).

In large blocks of forest, it is acceptable to meet some requirements by concentrating management in one area provided that:

·         all plans for implementing a requirement unevenly within the block are based on good practice which aims to meet the purpose of the requirement;

·         wherever appropriate, management is based on a design plan.

In holdings under a common management which are physically fragmented, it will normally be acceptable for the requirements to be met over the holding as a whole, not in each individual block, provided that:

·         all forest blocks are located in the same landscape unit;

·         plans for implementing requirements unevenly in different blocks are based on good practice which aims to meet the purpose of the requirement;

·         wherever appropriate, management is based on a design plan.

Other cases may arise which are not covered by this guidance. Such cases will be assessed by Global-Mark on a case-by-case basis.

4.4         Multi-sited Clients

Some large forest managers may operate over a large number of forest management units. In some circumstances, the entire organisation can be certified on the basis of a sample of sites. The basis for selection of sites for sampling is that:

·         at least part of the sample shall be random;

·         the full range of sites shall be formed into subgroups of like-forest management units on the basis of ecosystem, size of the forest, and tenure;

·         a sample of sites shall be taken from each of the subgroups.

The minimum number of sites audited shall be sufficient to provide an appropriate statistical level of significance & confidence.

A multi-sited organisation has a Head Office at which certain activities are planned, controlled or managed, and also meets at least one of the following conditions:

·         has one or more branch offices (in addition to the central office) at which certain activities are planned, controlled or managed; and/or

·         has more than one like-forest management unit; and/or

·         has more than one identified active coupe. An active coupe is one where ground operations such as harvesting, site preparation, planting and post-plant tending are currently underway or have been completed within the three months before the date of the audit. 'Ground operations' means physical activity on the coupe, and does not include acquisition or planning activity.

In the context of this document, branch offices, like-forest management units and active coupes are all deemed to be 'sites'. Therefore, an organisation with only one office and one like-forest management unit, but with more than one active coupe, is still a multi-sited organisation.

Inactive coupes and non-productive areas such as streamside reserves, conservation areas, and roads are not deemed to be sites in the context of this document.

The full range of sites must be formed into subgroups of like-forest management units on the basis of ecosystem, size of the forest, and tenure.  A sample of sites shall be taken from each of the subgroups.

A multi-sited organisation need not be a unique legal entity, but all sites shall have a legal or contractual link with the central office of the organisation and be subject to a common forest management system, which is laid down, established and subject to continuous surveillance by the central office. This means that the central office has rights to implement corrective actions when needed at any site. Where applicable, this should be formalised by means of contracts, policies and/or procedures between the central office and the sites.

Eligibility to qualify under the multi-sited program approach

The organisation’s forest management system must be centrally administered under a centrally controlled plan and subject to central internal audit and review. All the relevant sites (including the central administration function) must be subject to the organisation’s internal audit and review program and shall have been audited in accordance with that program before Global-Mark can start its certification process.

It shall be demonstrated that the central office of the organisation has established a management system which complies with the AFS and that the whole organisation meets the requirements of the AFS.

The organisation must demonstrate its ability to collect and analyse data (including but not limited to the items listed below) from all sites and the central office, and its authority and ability to initiate organisational change if required:

·         system documentation and system changes;

·         complaints;

·         evaluation of corrective actions;

·         audit and review planning and evaluation of the results.

Implementation of multi-sited approach

·         When a nonconformity is found at a site, either through the organisation’s audit and review program or from auditing by Global-Mark, an investigation should take place to determine whether other sites may be affected. Global-Mark will require the organisation to review the nonconformities to determine whether they indicate an overall system deficiency applicable to all sites or not. If they are found to do so, corrective action shall be performed at the central office and at the individual sites. If they are found not to do so, the organisation should be able to demonstrate the justification for limiting its follow-up action.

·         Global-Mark will require evidence of these actions and increase its sampling periodicity until satisfied that control is re-established.

·         At the time of the decision-making process, if any site has a nonconformity, certification must be denied to the whole network pending satisfactory corrective action and follow up by Global-Mark.

·         It is not admissible that, in order to overcome the obstacle raised by the existence of a nonconformity at a single site, the organisation seeks to exclude from the scope the 'problematic' site during the certification process.

·         One certificate will be issued with the name and address of the central office of the organisation. A list of all the sites to which the certification relates will also be issued, either on the certificate itself, or in a schedule referred to on the certificate. The scope or other reference on the certificate shall make clear that the certified activities are performed by the network of sites listed. If the certification scope of the sites is only part of the general scope of the organisation, its applicability to all the sites shall be clearly stated on the certificate and schedule.

·         A sub-certificate may be issued to the organisation for each site covered by the certification on condition that it contains the same scope, or a sub-scope of that scope, and includes a clear reference to the main certificate.

·         The certification will be withdrawn in its entirety, if the central office or any of the sites does not fulfill the necessary criteria for maintaining certification.

·         Global-Mark will maintain a list sites. The Client is required to inform Global-Mark about the closure of any of the sites. Failure to provide such information will be considered as a misuse of the certification and will be raised as a nonconformity.

·         Additional sites can be added to an existing certificate as the result of post certification review activities.

Sample selection

The sample should be partly selective based on the factors set out below and partly non-selective, and should result in a range of different sites being selected, without excluding the random element of sampling.

At least 25% of the sample should be selected at random.

Taking into account the criteria mentioned hereafter, the remainder should be selected so that the differences among the sites selected over the period of certification are as large as possible.

The site selection criteria may include:

·         results of the organisation's audit and review programs, previous reports by Global-Mark, or any existing knowledge of the organisation;

·         communications from interested parties and other relevant aspects of corrective and preventive action;

·         significant variations in the size of the sites and number of employees;

·         variations in work procedures;

·         modifications since the last certification activity;

·         geographical dispersion;

·         maturity of the management system;

·         any shift working;

·         the significance and extent of the aspects and associated impacts;

·         potential interaction with sensitive environments;

·         the views of interested parties.

The selection of sites does not have to be done at the start of the certification process. It can be done once the review at the central office has been completed. In any case, the central office shall be informed of the sites to be sampled. This can be on relatively short notice, but should allow adequate time to prepare for the review.

Size of sample

The minimum number of sites to be visited per audit is:

·         Certification review: the size of the sample shall be the square root of the number of remote sites (y=√x), rounded to the upper whole number.

·         Post Certification review: the size of the annual sample shall be the square root of the number of remote sites with 0.6 as a coefficient (y=0.6=√x), rounded to the upper whole number.

·         Re-certification review: the size of the sample shall be the same as for a certification review. Nevertheless, where the organisation has proved to be compliant over the previous three years, the size of the sample could be reduced to a factor of 0.8; i.e. (y=0.8=√x), rounded to the upper whole number.

In all cases, the central office shall be visited in addition to the number of sites sampled.

The size of sample should be increased where Global-Mark’s analysis of the activity covered by the forest management system subject to certification indicates special circumstances in respect of factors like those mentioned above.

When the organisation has a hierarchical structure (e.g. central or head office, branch offices, like-forest management units, active coupes), the sampling model defined above applies to each level. An example for certification review is as follows:

·         1 central office: visited at each review (certification, post certification, or re-certification reviews);

·         4 branch offices: sample = 2; minimum 1 chosen at random;

·         27 like-forest management units: sample = 6; minimum 2 chosen at random;

·         1700 active coupes: sample = 42: minimum 11 chosen at random.

Where applicable, a minimum of one inactive coupe and one non-productive area shall be sampled for each like-forest management unit sampled.

On application for a new group of sites to join an already certified multi-sited network, each new group of sites should be considered as an independent set to determine the sample size. After including the new group on the certificate, the new sites should be added to the previous ones to determine the sample size for future surveillance or reassessment audits.