Of 7 FSC chain-of-custody certificate holders processing and/or trading charcoal products, following findings of wrongdoing in an ongoing investigation.
While the investigation is ongoing, FSC will contain the risk of future false claims by suspending the trademark license agreements of all certificate holders involved (please refer to annex below for a full list).
This decision was taken during an investigation by Assurance Services International (ASI), where large discrepancies were found between the volume of certified product produced and the volume that was sold. These mismatches applied to charcoal and charcoal products traded by these certificate holders in 2017 and 2018. This meant that products that carried the FSC label contained uncertified charcoal when sold to customers in Europe. This practice is contrary to FSC’s mission as a trusted certification scheme.
The suspension means that these companies will no longer be able to use the FSC trademarks or trade in FSC-certified products globally. It will remain in force until they can demonstrate to FSC that they have identified the relevant issues in their processes, corrected them and provided sufficient assurance to both ASI and FSC that they will not be repeated.
Transaction verification in charcoal supply chains
Since 2018, FSC has carried out a series of important steps to ensure the integrity of its charcoal supply chain, including working with ASI to conduct transaction verification of all the major suppliers and producers of FSC certified charcoal products globally. FSC has sent numerous samples of charcoal products for fibre testing at reference laboratories such as the Thuenen Institut in Germany or the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory.
Reinforcing these measures, ASI has also conducted integrity investigations of charcoal producers and traders, including extraordinary onsite audits of these companies to verify their purchases and sales.
About Assurance Services International (ASI)
Assurance Services International GmbH (ASI) is an assurance partner for leading voluntary sustainability standards and initiatives worldwide. The company supervises conformity assessment bodies that certify sustainability standards in forestry, fishing, aquaculture, palm oil, protected areas, tourism and bio energy. Since the foundation of ASI in 2006, a total of 85 conformity assessment bodies, with more than 40,000 certificates in 125 countries, have been accredited. ASI has 75 employees in 34 locations worldwide. It is headquartered in Bonn (Germany). More information: www.asi-assurance.org.
About the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a global organization dedicated to promoting environmentally sound, socially beneficial and economically prosperous management of the world’s forests. FSC was created in 1993 to help consumers and businesses identify products from well-managed forests and sets standards by which forests are certified, offering credible verification to people who are buying wood and wood products. Currently 200 million hectares and over 33,000 companies worldwide are certified to FSC standards. For more information visit www.fsc.org.
Annex
List of companies whose trademark license agreement with FSC has been suspended and/or terminated:
- FC-COC-001001 ALC Perechin timber-chemical plant
- SGS-COC-003943 Carrbridge Development Co Ltd
- SGS-COC-010450-F SPE “Polyprom” LTD
- SGS-COC-010450-X “No-Tis” Ltd,
- SGS-COC-010450-Z ALC Pology Chemical Plant Coagulant
- SGS-COC-010445-R “Aqua-Holding” LTD,
- SGS-COC-010445-W “EUROLAND” LTD
- SGS-COC-010443-F Trade Industrial Company (TIC) “Urchimexport” Limited
- SGS-COC-010443-H “Polyprom-Invest” LTD
- SGS-COC-010598 LLC “Industrial Financial Group “Naftakhim””
- SGS-COC-010615 East-West Chemicals Asset Management Limited