Briefing note 7 final

Briefing
Note
Number
07
FLEGT Briefing Notes
FOREST LAW ENFORECMENT, GOVERNANCE AND TRADE
Guidelines for Independent Monitoring
ProForest
Series 2007
Background
The EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade
(FLEGT) Action Plan sets out a range of actions to tackle
problems of poor forest governance and weak law en-forcement
that give rise to illegal logging in a number
of timber-producing countries and the associated trade
in illegally-logged timber products.
The centrepiece of the Action Plan is the formation of
voluntary bilateral agreements between the EU and tim-ber-
producing countries. These Voluntary Partnership
Agreements (VPAs) aim to support governance reform
and strengthen enforcement activities in the timber-pro-ducing
countries (Partner Countries), while setting up a
licensing scheme that will ensure that only legally-pro-duced
timber products are exported to the EU.
FLEGT licences, covering all exports of timber products
listed in a VPA, will be issued by the Partner Country’s
authorities under national FLEGT Licensing Schemes and
on the basis of a Legality Assurance System (LAS) that
will include the following components (see Figure 1):
• A definition of legally-produced timber that describes
the laws that must be complied with in order for a
licence to be issued and the checks that need to be
made to determine compliance (See Briefing Note 2);
• A system to track timber from forest operations to
export that excludes timber from unknown or illegal
The titles of the six briefing notes in this series
are:
1. What is FLEGT?
2. What is legal timber?
3. A timber legality assurance system
4. Control of the supply chain: Wood tracing
systems and chain of custody
5. Legality assurance systems: requirements for
verification
6. Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA)
7. Guidelines for independent monitoring
sources from the supply chain (See Briefing Note 4);
• A system to verify compliance with all elements of the
legality definition and control of the supply chain (See
Briefing Note 5);
• Licensing of timber products for export, on an approved
market participant or individual shipment basis;
• Independent monitoring to provide assurance to all in-terested
parties that the system is working as planned
and maintain its credibility.
The EU’s competent authorities1 will only permit entry to
timber products from a Partner Country included in its VPA
if they are covered by a FLEGT licence.
page 01
ProForest
Figure 1. Sche-matic
representa-tion
of the five
components of a
Legality Assurance
System: a) Legality
in the forest, b)
Control of supply
chain, c) Verifica-tion
of forest and
supply chain, d) Is-suance
of licenses,
e) Independent
monitoring of the
system.

Briefing
Note
Number
07
ProForest
Series 2007
The Independent Monitoring component, is a function that
is independent of a Partner Country’s government forest
sector regulatory bodies. It aims to provide credibility to
the FLEGT licensing scheme by checking that all aspects
of a Partner Country’s LAS are operating as intended.
This Briefing Note provides guidance on the elements for
effective independent monitoring, set out as a set of prin-ciples
and criteria. The following terms are used:
The Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) is a commit-tee
established for each VPA made up of representatives
of the Partner Country, the European Commission and Mem-ber
States. Its role is to facilitate and monitor the imple-mentation
of the VPA, and to mediate and resolve any con-flicts
and disputes that arise.
The Legality Assurance System (LAS) is the system for
assuring that timber or timber products exported from
the Partner Country to the EU have been produced in com-pliance
with relevant national legislation. It comprises (i) a
definition of legally-produced timber; (ii) a system to verify
compliance with the definition; (iii) a system to trace tim-ber
products from a forest to point of export; (iv) licensing
of exports to attest to their legality; and (iv) independent
monitoring of all components.
The Third-Party Monitor is a non-political body, possess-ing
the necessary skills and systems to ensure its inde-pendence
and objectivity, which monitors implementation
of the LAS by: (i) checking all its aspects using best audit-ing
practice; (ii) identifying non-compliances and system
failures; and (iii) reporting its findings to the JIC.
The Reporting Body may be established by the JIC as a
subsidiary body for day-to-day work. It: (i) examines and
validates the findings of the Third-Party Monitor before
their public release; (ii) identifies corrective actions where
appropriate and checks whether such actions are taken;
and (iii) responds to complaints concerning implementa-tion
of the LAS. The authority for this function is the JIC
but, in most cases, the day-to-day activities may be under-taken
by a sub-committee or advisory panel convened by
and working for the JIC.
The Reporting Body would comprise individuals with rel-evant
expertise from a representative range of interest
groups. It may have decision-making responsibilities or
have only a consultative role, with all decision-making pow-ers
retained by the JIC. Where no sub-committee or advi-sory
panel is established, the Reporting Body responsibili-ties
would be retained by the JIC.
A Conformity Assessment Body is an organisation that
is competent in determining whether a product, system,
process or a person's competence etc. meets a defined
specification. It demonstrates its competence by adhering
to relevant standards, in particular relevant ISO/IEC nor-mative
documents2, preferably by seeking accreditation
against those standards.
A corrective action is an action taken by an actor in the
LAS to correct non-compliances or system failures identi-fied
by the Third-Party Monitor.
1 Institutional arrangements
P1.1 Designation of authority: The Partner Country Gov-ernment
formally authorises the independent monitor-ing
function and allows it to operate in an effective and
transparent way.
C1.1.1 The Partner Country Government provides the
Third-Party Monitor with a formal mandate to access the
people, documents and sites necessary to carry out its
function.
C1.1.2 The Partner Country Government ensures that the
conditions necessary for the effective operation of the
Third Party Monitor are in place.
C1.1.3 The Partner Country Government ensures that
adequate funding3 and resources are available to allow
full functioning of independent monitoring.
P1.2 Independence from other elements of the LAS:
There is a clear separation between organisations and
individuals that are involved in management or regula-tion
of the forest resource and those involved in Inde-pendent
Monitoring.
C1.2.1 Organisations and individuals with a direct role in
the operation of the LAS or with a commercial interest in
the forestry sector are not involved in any aspect of in-dependent
monitoring.
C1.2.2 The Third-Party Monitor has no commercial or in-stitutional
relationship with any organisation involved in
the operation of the LAS or whose activities are subject
to monitoring.
P1.3 Appointment of the Third-Party Monitor: There is
a transparent mechanism for the appointment of the
Third-Party Monitor and clear, publicly-available rules re-garding
its operation.
C1.3.1 The terms of reference for the Third-Party Moni-tor
are approved by the JIC and made public prior to the
selection process for the Third-Party Monitor.
C1.3.2 There are clear guidelines for engaging the Third-
Party Monitor, which include an appropriate selection
procedure that is open to all qualified domestic and in-ternational
applicants and ensures transparency and
value for money.
C1.3.3 The Third-Party Monitor’s contract or agreement
with the Partner Country Government provides for:
• freedom from interference in the operation of the
Third-Party Monitor’s activities;
• access, within the limitations prescribed by national
legislation, to government and company information
relating to the operation of the LAS;
• access to the forest estate and timber transport, stor-age,
processing and export facilities that are relevant
to the operation of the LAS;
• payment of the Third-Party Monitor’s fees or costs
based on the work undertaken regardless of the na-ture
of its findings; and
• safeguards concerning the protection and use of com-mercially-
confidential information.
page 02

Briefing
Note
Number
07
ProForest
Series 2007
P1.4 Establishment of complaints mechanism: There
is a mechanism established for handling complaints and
disputes that arise from independent monitoring. This
is adequate to deal with any complaints about the op-eration
of the licensing scheme4.
C1.4.1 The complaints mechanism is approved by the
JIC. It includes principles to guide reporting about com-plaints
and actions taken to address them;
C1.4.2 The complaints mechanism includes a mecha-nism
for taking further actions, such as forwarding alle-gations
of LAS failure to the Third-Party Monitor to in-vestigate
and monitoring the outcomes of the investi-gation
5.
2 Third-Party Monitor
P2.1 Organisational and technical requirements: The
Third-Party Monitor is an organisation that is independ-ent
of other components of the Legality Assurance Sys-tem
and operates in accordance with a documented
management structure, policies and procedures that
meet internationally-accepted best practice.
C2.1.1 The Third-Party Monitor is subject to external
audits by a body which meets the requirements of ISO
17011 or equivalent6. These audits verify:
• that the Third-Party Monitor operates in accordance
with the requirements of ISO Guides 62, 65, 66 or
equivalent; and
• that it is qualified to offer assessment services cov-ering
the forest sector and forest products supply
chains.
Typically, to meet these requirements the Third-Party
Monitor would be an organisation that is accredited as
a conformity assessment body to offer services in these
fields.
C2.1.2 The Third-Party Monitor should have:
• at least five years experience of assessing forest man-agement
and chain of custody verification; and
• performed assessments of forest management and sup-ply
chain verification, preferably in countries with forest
sector characteristics similar to those of the Partner
Country
C2.1.3 Where the Third-Party Monitor’s principal headquar-ters
are not in the Partner Country, it should offer its serv-ices
in a joint venture with a domestic organisation with
relevant experience
C2.1.4 The JIC should establish minimum technical and ex-perience
requirements for the Third Party Monitor, tak-ing
the forest sector conditions and governance challenges
in the Partner Country into account.
P2.2 Monitoring methodology: The Third-Party Monitor’s
methodology is evidence-based and carried out at mini-mum
specified intervals7.
C2.2.1 There is a documented monitoring methodology
which includes adequate checks of documentation, operat-ing
records and operations of all parties in the LAS.
C2.2.2 Monitoring is carried out at regular intervals and
there is provision for unannounced monitoring. The fre-quency
and intensity of monitoring should be proportional
to the risk of non-compliance.
C2.2.3 Monitoring activities seek and consider input from a
range of stakeholder groups including forest owners and
managers, processors, buyers, central and regional gov-ernments,
academics, conservation organisations, NGOs,
workers, forest users, indigenous groups and communi-ties.
P2.3 Scope of monitoring: The Third-Party Monitor oper-ates
according to terms of reference that clearly specify
what has to be monitored and which cover all agreed re-quirements
for the issuance of FLEGT licenses.
C2.3.1 Monitoring determines whether the LAS is operat-ing
according to the requirements for the issuance of FLEGT
licenses. It includes:
• Checking all elements of the LAS - including legal
compliance in forest management, supply chain
integrity, verification activities and issuance of li-censes;
• Identifying and documenting non-compliance with LAS
requirements; and
• Assessing the effectiveness of corrective actions taken
to address non-compliance.
C2.3.2 For the purposes of cross checking and monitoring
the FLEGT licensing scheme, the Third-Party Monitor may
have access to relevant documents and data concerning
imports from the Partner Country into the EU. However EU
Member States’ competent authorities may withhold infor-mation
which they are not permitted to communicate sub-ject
to their respective national laws8.
P2.4 Reporting requirements: The Third-Party Monitor re-ports
regularly to the Reporting Body on the integrity of
the legality assurance scheme, including non-compliances,
as well as its assessment of corrective actions taken to ad-
ProForest
page 03

Briefing
Note
Number
07
ProForest
Series 2007
dress them.
C2.4.1 The Third-Party Monitor has documented proce-dures
for the preparation of reports which specify their
contents9 and timing. Typically, two reports are deliv-ered
each reporting period:
• a full report for consideration by the Reporting Body,
containing all relevant information on the monitor-ing
programme and findings; and
• a public summary report based on the full report
and covering, as a minimum, a summary of key find-ings,
non-compliances identified and concerns of
stakeholders.
C2.4.2 The Third-Party Monitor may make additional re-ports
to the Reporting Body outside the regular report-ing
framework, for instance where serious infringements
are detected.
C2.4.3 The Third-Party Monitor takes into account the
Reporting Body’s recommendations on amendments to
the report pertaining to substantiating evidence, clari-fying
facts, justifying conclusions, and improving ob-jectivity.
However, the Third-Party Monitor determines
the final content of the reports.
3 The Reporting Body
P3.1 Structure and mode of operation: The structure
of the Reporting Body, including its relationship to the
JIC, is clearly documented and publicly available.
C3.1.1 There are guidelines setting out the Reporting
Body’s functions and how it relates to the Partner Coun-try
Government, the Third-Party Monitor and the JIC.
Where applicable, these cover routine reporting and
feedback between the JIC and the Reporting Body, and
dealing with exceptional circumstances.
C3.1.2 The Reporting Body and its members shall act
objectively and should reject any political, commercial,
financial and other pressures that could compromise
their impartiality.
C3.1.3 The Reporting Body identifies, describes and
documents any relationship its members may have with
bodies and individuals involved in the forest sector to
determine the potential for conflict of interest. Any
potential conflicts identified, and the actions taken to
mitigate them, are made public.
C3.1.4 The Reporting Body does not include individuals
who are directly involved in the implementation of the
LAS.
P3.2 Roles and responsibilities: There are clearly docu-mented,
publicly-available terms of reference setting
out the Reporting Body’s roles and responsibilities.
C3.2.1 The Reporting Body receives and promptly re-views
and comments as appropriate on the Third-Party
Monitor’s reports. This includes:
• reviewing and approving the full reports and where
necessary recommending clarification of facts and
improving objectivity; and
• reviewing and approving the public summary reports,
where necessary recommending clarification of facts
or greater objectivity, prior to release into the public
domain, as well as monitoring their publication10.
C3.2.2 Where necessary, the Reporting Body communi-cates,
via an agreed structure, to relevant actors in the
LAS any recommendations arising from the Third-Party
Monitor’s reports.
C3.2.3 The Reporting Body has an accessible and func-tioning
mechanism for receiving complaints and other
input from any interested party and passing these on to
appropriate body dealing with complaints and disputes.
This includes mechanisms for:
• receiving and considering input from stakeholder
groups where appropriate and
• making public a summary of information on complaints
and actions taken to address them.
(Endnotes)
1 As defined in Council Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 of 20 December 2005 on
the establishment of a FLEGT licensing scheme.
2 See Appendix 1
3 In most cases it is likely that development assistance will cover some ele-ments
of Independent Monitoring.
4 Each VPA will include agreement on dispute resolution mechanisms. This will
need to be reflected in the TORs for the reporting body and JIC.
5 Handling of complaints and disputes is likely to vary between partner coun-tries.
The responsibilities can be given for example to a sub-committee of the
JIC or a separate dispute settlement body. In any case, a focal point needs to be
determined to receive complaints and communicate to the wider public.
6 See Appendix 1 for an explanation of the key elements of relevant ISO Guides
and Standards.
7 Depending on the complexity of the LAS, it is expected that regular checks of
the whole system should be undertaken at intervals of at least every 12 months
and will generally be more frequent in the early stages of implementation of a
LAS.
8 Art 5(3); Council Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 of 20 December 2005 states
that: "The competent authority shall grant access to the relevant documents
and data to persons or bodies designated by partner countries or regional or-ganisations
responsible for the independent monitoring of the FLEGT licensing
scheme”.
9 The format and content of reports and the level of detail contained within
them should be identified within the terms of reference for the Third-Party Moni-tor.
10 The JIC will establish a procedure to follow for cases where the Reporting
Body cannot reach a consensus.
page 04
ProForest

Briefing
Note
Number
07
ProForest
Series 2007
Appendix1: Key elements of ISO
Guides 62, 65, ISO 17021, and
17011
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
has almost 70 years of experience in the world of stand-ards
and verification. It is a network of over 140 coun-tries’
national standards institutes. It has produced over
14,000 standards which are precise technical documents
defining items’ specifications etc. ISO has also devel-oped
guidance to help the development of verification,
inspection and certification. Two key themes provide
guidance for conformity assessment bodies (CAB)
(Guides 62, 65 and 66) and accreditation bodies (ISO
17011).
Guides 62, 65, 66 and ISO 17021 – these set out the
requirements for how CABs operate. Guide 62 deals with
quality systems, Guide 65 deals with product/perform-ance
systems and Guide 66 deals with environmental
management systems. ISO 17021:2006 replaces Guides
62 and 66, which can be applied during a transition
period. The Guides/standard include a great deal of
overlap but key requirements are:
1. Organisation - General requirements including: non-discrimination
towards certification applicants, no im-pediments
or inhibitions to access to certification, serv-ices
to be made available to all applicants, no undue
financial or other conditions
Detailed requirements including: impartiality, separation of
responsibility for certification decision and certification
evaluation, freedom from commercial or financial pressure
that may influence decisions, ensuring that the activities
of related bodies do not affect confidentiality, objectivity
and impartiality, not give advice or provide consultancy
services to the applicant as to the methods of dealing with
matters which are barriers to the certification requested
2. Quality system - Requirement to document and operate
an effective quality system appropriate for the type, range
and volume of the work performed. The quality manage-ment
system to include, among other things, the proce-dures
for the recruitment, selection and training of certifi-cation
body personnel and monitoring of their perform-ances,
procedures for handling non-conformities and for
assuring the effectiveness of any corrective and preventive
actions taken, procedures for implementing the certifica-tion/
registration process, including conditions for issue,
retention and withdrawal of certification documents, sur-veillance
and reassessment procedures, procedures for
dealing with appeals, complaints and disputes
3. Conditions for certification - Including requirements
to: specify conditions for granting, maintaining and extend-ing
certification and the conditions under which certifica-tion
maybe withdrawn or suspended; document and make
available on request procedures for certification assess-ments,
surveillance and reassessment, and identifying non-conformities
and the need for corrective action
4. Personnel competence - Including requirements to: de-fine
minimum relevant criteria for the competence of certi-fication
body personnel; maintain information on the rel-evant
qualifications, training and experience of accredita-tion
body personnel; define minimum relevant criteria for
competence of auditors and technical experts; have a pro-cedure
for selecting auditors and technical experts on the
basis of their competence, training, qualifications and ex-perience;
ensure that the skills of the audit team are rel-evant
and appropriate
Guide 17011 - Accreditation is the internationally-accepted
basis for confirming that CABs are credible, independent
and operating properly. Accreditation prevents any organi-sation
simply deciding to become a CAB whatever their ex-perience
or ability. Accreditation aims to ensure that all
CABs operate above a certain level and that there is con-sistency
between the approaches and, most importantly,
the results, of different CABs. Bodies that are signatories
to the International Accreditation Forum’s Multilateral
Recognition Agreement for the accreditation of conform-ity
assessment bodies registering quality management sys-tems,
environmental management systems or product con-formity
assessment bodies will be recognised as meeting
the requirements of ISO 17011. Key requirements are:
1. Organisation – detailed requirements on the duties, re-sponsibilities
and authorities of personnel who could af-fect
the quality of the accreditation, non-discriminatory
policies and procedures, arrangements to safeguard the
confidentiality of the information. The accreditation body’s
activities shall not be presented as linked with consultancy.
page 05
ProForest

Briefing
Note
Number
07
ProForest
Series 2007
2. Management – use of a management system appropri-ate
to the type, range and volume of accreditation work
performed, procedures for document and record control,
procedures for the identification and management of
nonconformities in its own operations and to identify im-provements
and preventive actions, internal audits to verify
conformance to the requirements of ISO 17011and that
the management system is implemented and maintained,
procedures for dealing with complaints.
3. Human resources – maintenance of a sufficient compe-tent
personnel with the education, training, technical knowl-edge,
skills and experience necessary for the type, range
and volume of accreditation work performed.
4. Accreditation process - detailed procedures for the as-sessment
and accreditation processes, including arrange-ments
for granting, maintaining, extending, reducing,
suspending and withdrawing accreditation. The require-ments
for accreditation, including technical requirements
specific to each field of accreditation, information about
the fees, a description of the rights and obligations of
CABs, procedures for lodging and handling complaints
and appeals.
There are international arrangements that provide for
mutual recognition between national accreditation bod-ies;
for example, the International Accreditation Forum.
Signatories to the IAF MLA are subject to regular multi-national
peer evaluations. The purpose of these routine
on-site evaluations is to verify the signatories’ continu-ing
conformity with ISO/IEC 17011 and applicable guid-ance
documents. These peer evaluations ensure consist-ent,
harmonised accreditation practices.
FLEGT Briefing Notes are prepared by an expert group convened by the European Commission and
are intended to inform discussion of the EU FLEGT Action Plan. They do not reflect official posi-tions.
They are intended to provide useful information for potential FLEGT Partner countries and
others with an interest in the initiative. (March 2007)
page 06
ProForest

Briefing note 7 final

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Briefing note 7 final (20)

More from Minh Vu (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Briefing note 7 final