LEI GUIDELINE
GUIDELINE ON APPLICATION SUBMISSION OF SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY-BASED FOREST MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATION
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TABLE OF CONTENT TABLE OF CONTENT ..................................................................................................
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1. Introduction............................................................................................................
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2. Scope ....................................................................................................................
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3. Reference ..............................................................................................................
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4. Institutional Requirements .....................................................................................
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5. The Documents Assessed .....................................................................................
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GUIDELINE ON APPLICATION SUBMISSION OF SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY-BASED FOREST MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATION
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Introduction The Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) has a number of variations and each type has different performance and institution. As an incentive system, the certification of Sustainable Community-Based Forest Management (SCBFM) aims at encouraging the enhancement of institutional capacity of the CBFM organizations. In addition, the certification should also guarantee the availability of adequate information, which supports their existence. This document describes the guideline, which can be used as a reference for the CBFM actors, which will apply for their forest certification. The guideline contains the requirements of the CBFM actors that will apply for certification, and the completeness of the documents required for pre-assessment. In general, the CBFM certification benefits for the CBFM actors, which have formed a management organization or at least a management group, and their forests, are located at the areas where as a whole or a large part is relatively solid areas, or not scattered areas.
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Scope The aim of this Guideline is to provide a reference for CBFM actor to apply for certification, following the certification program of Sustainable Community-Based Forest Management. The guideline describes the institutional requirements for the CBFM certification applicants, and the completeness of applicant’s documents used for pre-assessment or before advance assessment. In addition, the guideline also contains the application submission procedure for two categories of certification scheme: Certification Under Third Party Assessment and Certification Under Recognition Over Claim.
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Reference 1. 2. 3. 4.
LEI Standard 5000: Framework for Sustainable Forest Production Management System. LEI Standard 5000-3: Sustainable Community-Based Forest Management System Standard LEI 5005: Terms and Definitions Related to Forest Certification. LEI Guideline 99: Sustainable Forest Production Management System.
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5. 6. 7.
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LEI Guideline 99-09: General Requiremenet for Expert Panel of Sustainable Community-Based Forest Management Certification System. LEI Document 05: Toolbox Verifier and Its Verification for Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Community-Based Forest Management Certification System. LEI Document 06: Intensity Scale of Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Community-Based Forest Management Certification System.
Institutional Requirements 4.1. Certification Under Third Party Assessment The application submission for this certification scheme is done by management unit (a CBFM organization or a CBFM Group), or other related parties (associate NGOs, mill owners, traders, and others) that have written agreements with management unit. The applicant submits the certification application to the Certification Body. The Certification Body will select the Expert Panel in order to examine whether the certification scheme proposed by the applicant in accordance with the standard stipulated in the Certification Under Third Party Assessment (CUTPA). In the event that the proposed scheme by applicant fulfills the CUTPA standard, further assessment may be processed. In the event that the proposed scheme by applicant does not fulfill the CUTPA standard, the Certification Body returns the application back to the applicant. The Certification Body attaches the recommendations made by the Expert Panel to the application sent to the applicant. 4.2. Certification Under Recognition Over Claim This scheme, the Certification under Recognition over Claim (CUROC), is very special because to be applied for the CBFMs well known by the public. The CBFMs which fulfill this certification scheme are assumed to have complete scientific information, which describes their performance and sustainability. The application submission for this certification scheme should be done by third party, which experiences to work with CBFM being promoted. The completeness of scientific information on the CBFM being promoted to be certified is required in order to make the certification decision, instead of information from the direct field-checking visits. In the final decision process, however, not only the scientific information is needed but also the second opinion, from the related experts, which experience to work with the CBFM being assessed.
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Documents Being Assessed The applicant of CBFM certification should provide and deliver a number of information and documents with regard to the CBFM being assessed to the Certification Body. These information and documents should be in accordance with the relevant time horizon of the certification scheme used.
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Based the information and documents received by the Certification Body, under the CUTPA, the Expert Panel will make the certification decision with regard to pre-field assessment, and under the CUROC, the final certification decison, that is whether the CBFM being promoted has fulfilled the criteria and indicators standard stipulated in LEI Guideline. The minimum information, which should be provided by the applicant and sent to the Certification Body at least covers: (a) Information on forest utilization: name of management unit (a CBFM organization or CBFM Group); forest area; number of members; type of commodity; yield volume (monthly or annually); mill owned (if any). (b) Information on forest location and status: location (subvillage; village; subdistrict; district); status of ownership: state land, customary communal land or customary individual land or private land; land use (if known): protected area, forestrycultivated area or nonforestry-cultivated area. Besides the above information, the applicant who will propose the CUROC, should prepared special documents which basically are the resume of the information on CBFM performance being assessed (see items below). The detailed data and information, which are required to make the decision with regard to pre-field assessment (CUTPA) or the final certification decision (CUROC) describe as follows: 5.1.
Certification under Third Party Assessment, Scheme A The Information or the documents assessed are as follows but not limited to: a) The statement of the management unit, at least containing information on the objective of the forest management, the potency of forest resource, the potency of forest products and the potency of business. b) The data about the management unit, among others, the documents or the information, which describes the land status, the land map, and the other data related to the forest resource, the land resource, and the human resource. c) The planning document (if any) and/or the other forms of planning document, which are significant as the basis for the arrangement of the management unit; any agreements on the capital and production sharing. d) The report document (if any): all the relevant report types of management, and/or the other report forms available.
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Certification under Third Party Assessment, Scheme B The Information or the documents assessed are as follows but not limited to: a) The statement of the forest farmer group (“the management unit’) at least containing information on the management objective, the potency of forest resource, the potency of forest products and the potency of business, and the short description of the forest management mechanism so far developed. The statement is signed by all member of the group as a part of the common approval form.
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b) c) d) 5.3.
The data about the management unit, among others, are the documents, which describe the land status, the land map, and the other data related to the forest resource, the land resource and the human resource. The planning document (if available) and/or the other forms of the planning document, which are significant as the basis for the arrangement of the management unit. The report documents: all the relevant types of the management reports
Certification under Third Party Assessment, Scheme C The information or the documents assessed are as follows but not limited to: a)
The name of the location: name of compartment, name of block, name of sub-village, name of village, name of sub-district, name of district, and name of province;
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The status of land ownership: state land, customary communal land or customary individual land or private land;
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The land tenure right: right to use, right to rent, right to share, or right to pawn;
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The land use: protected area, forestry-cultivated area, or nonforestrycultivated area;
e) The type of forest products: wood and non-wood;
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The forest unit area, which will be certified;
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The forest management organization: individual or collective (group or communal, formal organization, cooperative).
Scheme of Certification under Recognition over Claim For the interest of the assessment in this scheme, the applicant is required to provide the documents, which describe the basic information about the forest management, which is proposed to be assessed. The documents should also describe the reasons why the applicant requests for the certification; the forest management performance in the sense that how far the criteria and indicators standard are fulfilled; the benefits of certification for the community; and the others are necessary to be considered. In describing the forest management performance, the applicant can utilize the information available and the published results of research, which are relevant to support the sustainability arguments of CBFM being assessed. Besides that, the applicant is also required to attach the references used and other relevant documents, which support the certification request.
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