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At the 3rd Asian-European Environment Ministers meeting (ASEM) 24 - 26 April 2007 in Copenhagen, the Danish Ministry of the Environment, Forest and Nature Agency launched a public consultation on Draft Criteria for legal and sustainable timber and for the assessment of certification schemes.
The consultation confirmed huge interest in the criteria from a large number of stakeholders and included many valuable and constructive proposals for amendments. The consultation also clearly indicated the complexity of setting such criteria with conflicting comments and proposals on some key aspects, for example in relation to the inclusion of social criteria for sustainable timber, see more here .
Before finalising the criteria the Danish Minister for the Environment, Troels Lund Poulsen, has asked the Forest and Nature Agency to provide for a broader discussion with possible further inputs from stakeholders. To this end, the Agency in collaboration with Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London) is inviting interested parties to a two day-workshop in Copenhagen on 7-8 April 2008, see more here .
Whilst continuing the work on finalising the criteria, the Danish Ministry of the Environment will temporarily advise public buyers to accept either a certificate of FSC or PEFC as proof of 'legal and sustainable' timber. The temporary advice will apply until 1 April 2009. Updated purchasing guidelines taking this into account will be developed shortly. Until then, the Ministry's guidelines of September 2006 on the purchase of legal timber still apply and so do the guidelines for the purchase of legal and/or sustainable tropical timber of 2003.
Contact person:
Co-ordinator on International Forest Policy
Christian Lundmark Jensen
e-mail:
Phone: +45 72542602
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