Forestry certification is a voluntary process whereby a third party (independent of forest management) certifies, through an audit process, that the management of a certain forest area conforms to the requirements established in the corresponding certification standard. There are currently several certification systems although, in Spain, the two most representative are PEFC and FSC.
The forest certification system PEFC, in its group mode, is based on the certification of management units in which their owners or managers commit, actively and voluntarily, to comply with the sustainable forest management rules of the PEFC system established in UNE norm of Sustainable Forest Management.
For its part, the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®-C118460) developed 10 principles and 56 criteria which, if fulfilled, guarantee the minimum level that can be required for forest management anywhere in the world. Given that this threshold will be reached in a different way according to the particular characteristics of each country, the FSC promotes the development of indicators and, optionally, regional or national verifiers that allow to assess compliance with Principles and Criteria on a local scale. The set of international Principles and Criteria plus the indicators and Verifiers prepared by the Spanish Working Group, make up the FSC. The aim of creating these standards is to be able to determine when the management of a forest mass can be qualified as certifiable, for the purposes of the FSC system, in Spain.
In 2010, COMPAÑÍA GALEGA DE SILVICULTORES SL created the SELGA Group, Xestión Forestal Sostible in order to enable forest certification in the areas that belonged to the partners of the Galicia Forestry Association and to the members of the Southern Galicia Biomass Producers Association.
The principles on which the Group is based are the commitment to forest certification, both PEFC (following the provisions of the Forest Management Standard UNE 162.002) and FSC and in the FSC Principles and Criteria both in the short, medium and long term) in order to promote the sustainable use of forest products and services. In addition, Selga undertook not to carry out activities openly contrary to the Principles and Criteria of the FSC in other areas of our property or management that are not within the scope of the Selga Xestión Forestal Sostible Group.
Since then, the SELGA Xestión Forestal Sostible Group, has been developing a policy of awareness, training, dissemination and monitoring of a planned management that is respectful of environmental and socio-cultural values that allow it to be maintained in the short, medium and long term.
The SELGA Xestión Forestal Sostible Group has as objectives to promote sustainable forest management (and thus guarantee to present and future generations the use and enjoyment of our forests), to create the protocol of necessary actions that allow the certification of Galician owners, thus offering them the possibility of participating in the certification processes in a way that minimizes their costs and thus not threaten the economic viability of the forest management units that can be ascribed to the process. To this end, the certification process itself, in addition to ensuring the conservation of each and every one of the values that exist in the forest area managed according to the criteria established in the PEFC and FSC certification standards, must become a strength that allows it to bring certified wood closer to the final consumer.
To achieve the stated objectives, the management of the company proposes:
In order to record this commitment, which can be extended to both the short, medium and long term, this policy is made public on the group's website and can be sent to those who request it.
With that aim, the Group has the page www.selga.es which works as an instrument that improves the management developed by the members of the Group in their forests. To this end, in the section of the page reserved for Group members (affiliated), you can find the group's internal control procedure, forestry manuals, didactic material related to forestry, contract models, etc. In addition, and with the same objectives, a procedure is established for the presentation of communications, claims and complaints so that third parties (both affected parties and interest groups) can communicate with the Group Entity to transmit observations that may result in an improvement of management at Group level as well as at the level of the different management units that make it up. For this, a standardized form has been drawn up (consulting interest groups) to make communication more effective, although any means deemed appropriate can be used.
The SELGA Xestión Forestal Sostible Group was created in 2010. Its first certificate (PEFC) was obtained on September 7 of that year, with 7,002.90 hectares certified belonging to 15 different forests, most of them private communal neighborhood forests.
In 2011, it was also necessary to carry out an expansion audit on an additional surface of 3,162.44 hectares which, together with the ordinary expansions carried out, meant that the PEFC certified surface rose to 11,278.74 hectares at the end of that year.
In 2013, the group obtained its FSC certificate, with 2,321.14 hectares certified. All of them were part of the 14,609.37 PEFC certified hectares.
At the end of 2017, the group had 13,641.92 hectares certified by FSC and 21,308.52 hectares certified by PEFC.
The certification process begins with the submission of the application for entry into the Group by the person who intends to include one or more forests in any of the certificates managed by the Group. Later, you can request the inclusion of any of the forest plots that you manage.
SELGA's technical team analyzes the information related to forest management. You must ensure the quantity, form and quality of the information provided. If the data provided by the owner or forest manager is not sufficient or shows evidence of non-conformities, the SELGA technical team will issue a request to expand the information received.
The acceptance or inclusion of forest owners or forest managers becomes effective at the moment when the Technical Committee approves the proposal presented by the Technical Secretariat, assigning a definitive registration number. Membership remains effective indefinitely, until there are no major non-conformities that have not been resolved and that could lead to expulsion, or until the member requests his voluntary deregistration (it is necessary to remember that the certification process is voluntary so the owner or manager can request their withdrawal whenever they want, unless there is a temporary commitment depending on the standard under which they are certified).
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