SGS India Private Limited, Gurgaon

Mandatory legal timber validation (mltv) is the “compulsory, country level” approach to sgs’s portfolio of independent verification of legal timber (ivlt) services. Mltv is designed for implementation as a national scheme enforcing a programme of continuous monitoring and verification of wood production and tracking information, also capturing any imports. It involves the creation of a long-term operational partnership between the government and sgs as an internationally credible independent verifier.

mltv provides efficient and reliable verification that all companies, across a whole country or province, consistently comply with specific legal requirements. To achieve this, mltv incorporates a tailored combination of the following elements:

• verification of legal origin (vlo): verification of e. G. Production rights, chain of ownership, tax payments and adherence to production quotas, to demonstrate that logs and timber products have been legally sourced.
  
  
• verification of legal compliance (vlc): assessment of the timber producer for compliance with all relevant national legislation, including laws relating to forest management planning, land management and forest exploitation, to demonstrate that logs and timber products have been legally produced.

as the issue of illegal logging and poor management is increasingly being addressed in importing countries by measures designed to deny market access to illegal forest products, mltv supports trade facilitation: mltv statements are issued and officially validated export permits are granted to consignments of timber that meet the criteria of agreed vlo and vlc modules. The requirements may be tightened as mltv is gradually implemented. Eventually the system can be applied to the domestic market as well. The entire production of a country or region monitored under mltv can be deemed legal.

since 1995, sgs has been successfully running independent monitoring and verification programs in a number of african, asian and latin american countries. These existing programs have a potential to evolve towards a more comprehensive mltv framework.

key activities of mltv:

• timber flow control consists in the tracking and physical inspection of products and documents, using advanced technology to identify and monitor the domestic, import/transit and export flows of forest products.
  
  
• forest management auditing & monitoring uses documentary and field checks to investigate how resource management is planned and how management plans are being implemented in legitimate logging areas.
  
  
• land use control & forest surveillance is a gis-based work in which data from remote sensing imagery and ground verification is collected and interpreted to monitor changes in land cover or occupation, and verify them against planned land use.

Forest management certification is an independent assessment of the forest management unit to check that the forest complies with the internationally recognized standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Forest certification provides an assurance to customers, stakeholders and investors of the quality of forest management.
Products originating from forests certified by SGS Qualifor may carry the FSC trademark. Since buyers of wood products are increasingly adopting FSC-accredited certification as an element of timber specification, an FSC trademark on your products provides you access to market that specify timber products from well-managed forests. SGS Qualifor is an FSC-accredited certification body that inspect, audit and certify organizations against FSC Principles and Criteria for Forest Management. These principles and criteria concern the environmental, social and economic impacts of forest management.

FSC Forest Management Certification Services:

• Forest Management Public Summaries and Standards
• Update on SGS FSC Forest Management Certification Services
• Current Forest Management certification projects
• Learn more about FSC Forest Management Certification
  
• Apply online for FSC Forest Management Certification
• Download FSC Forest Management Certification Application Form
  
• FSC Forest Management Controlled Wood Checklist
  

As a major by-product of the forestry industry, wood and timber-related products often end up as furniture. Good furniture needs to function properly, withstand a lot of wear and tear and conform to specific safety standards. SGS’s Consumer Testing Services division offers a comprehensive evaluation of furniture based on industry standards in Japan, the US and the EU. Our furniture testing laboratories are spread throughout the worlds’ key sourcing markets, including the biggest, China, where we have four busy laboratories in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Anji. Our test capabilities cover:

• Physical performance tests
• Fire & flammability
• Foams
• Adhesives & Coatings
• Textiles such as upholstery

For office, domestic, upholstered and children’s furniture the following tests can and should be conducted:

• Safety test
• Stability, Toxic property, Fire resistance, Electric resistance, Stinking property
• Function check:
• Operational property, Dimensional Accuracy, Water leakage resistance, Soundlessness
• Strength & Durability Test:
• Static Load, Dynamic Load, Repeated Durability, Weather Resistance, Surface Process Properties…etc
• Japanese standards covered: JIS S1017,S1023,S1102, S1202