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Timber Certifications


The government has also started numerous initiatives over the years to promote certification, including various committees across different agencies, Criteria and Indicators (C&I), national codes, reduced impact logging (RIL) and chain of custody (CoC), among others. Most have moved slowly or not at all after an initial push. These initiatives, however, could serve as a basis from which to build towards a robust national, regional, or international certification system:

1. The Timber Certification Committee of Myanmar (TCCM) was established under ministerial decree in 1998, along with a working group in 1999, to explore the potential requirements of a timber certification regime. Today, the TCCM acts as the national governing body to monitor the future timber certification process and activities in Myanmar. The committee consists of government officials of all departments and institutions under MOECAF and one representative from FREDA, a national forestry NGO run by a retired MOECAF minister. The TCCM was reformed in 2005 to add the Myanmar Timber Merchant’s Association (MTMA). Since its creation, it has established links with other timber certification bodies in the region on a bilateral basis, such as Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) of Malaysia and Eco‐labeling Institute of Indonesia (LEI). The TCCM may not be sufficiently independent from the government and the timber‐certifying body as international standards may require, however.
   
2. The TCCM strives to develop the principles, methodology and work plan to establish a credible and pragmatic
Timber Certification Scheme for Myanmar. The TCCM is now a part of the greater Myanmar Timber
Certification Program (MTCP). Of the total 63 Forest Districts which can be treated as Forest Management Units (FMUs), 38 districts are included in the MTCP where timber extraction occurs. A push for forest management decentralization has allowed FMU managers to draft MTCP’s implementation plans, where each forest district now has its own forest management plan. Currently, the pre‐assessments of current performance against the developed Criteria and Indicators (C&I) are being conducted in different FMUs. An independent assessment by a third party is scheduled to be carried out at a later date with the guidance of a Myanmar governing body that has not yet been established.
   
3. Myanmar's C&I for sustainable forest management (SFM) at both national and FMU levels were approved in 1999, as based on ITTO's 1998 C&I for SFM of tropical forests. Together with standards of performance for each activity, there are a total of 7 criteria identified at the national and FMU levels, 78 indicators and 267 required activities at the national level, and a total of 73 indicators and 217 activities at the FMU level. The ITTO C&I for
SFM were revised again in 2005 to include 7 criteria and 51 indicators at the FMU level.
   
4. Myanmar has also participated at the 1st, 6th and 9th Ad‐Hoc working group meetings of the Pan‐ASEAN Timber Certification Initiative in 2002, 2007 and 2010, respectively. The TCCM is now developing a timber certification standard and process, reflective of Myanmar's particular forest management system. Myanmar's ITTO‐based C&I are the basis for developing timber certification checklists at the FMU level (Interviews with active forestry official and MTMA members, Yangon, July 2010).
   
5. In 2000, Myanmar’s MOECAF developed a National Code of Harvesting Practices (NCOHP) based on the regional FAO/Asia‐Pacific Forestry Commission Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting in Asia‐Pacific, which was revised in 2003. FAO and the Japanese government supported the “Enhancing Sustainable Forest Harvesting in Asia” from 2003‐08, which were the initial stages for applying improved forest harvesting.
   
6. In 2008, Myanmar developed “reduced impact logging” (RIL) guidelines. Meant to lead to the development of an internationally recognized national timber certification standard, RIL guidelines aim to provide guiding mechanisms to realize NCOHP.
7. Chain‐of‐custody (COC) requirements for legal and sustainable timber are currently being developed, with hopes that the first COC certification will be achieved within the first two years of MTCP operation. The government hopes that the implementation of COC and SFM certification in Myanmar will be achieved within the ASEAN target of 2015.
   
7. Chain‐of‐custody (COC) requirements for legal and sustainable timber are currently being developed, with hopes that the first COC certification will be achieved within the first two years of MTCP operation. The government hopes that the implementation of COC and SFM certification in Myanmar will be achieved within the ASEAN target of 2015.
   
8. On 17th July 2013, The Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF) have established a Myanmar forest certification committee (MFCC) which replaces the old Myanmar timber certification committee. The new committee is more broad-based as it includes members from various ministries such as Health, Labour; National Planning, Science and Technology; Attorney General’s Office; Myanmar NGO’s and the Myanmar Timber Merchants’ Association. Some say this new committee lends more credibility to the process as it includes representatives outside of MOECAF. In this MFCC, there are two members from MTMA, one of them has been assigned as Secretary of MFCC. It showed the strong commitment of MOECAF to accept wider participation of private sector in the forest sector.