Nine Steps

Forest certification is a formal process with which an independent institution will assess the forest management in compliance with the set criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. Certification is done at the level of a logging company or a forest management unit.
The application is made by the forest owner / manager or the person who has use rights over the forest (concessionaire).

The method comprises a number of steps:

• information and finding a  certifying institute
• identifying  stakeholders and interest groups
• determining the certification standard
• research (pre-audit)
• Head inspection head (main audit)
• Inspection report
• peer review
• awarding the certificate
• annual inspection (annual audit)

The testing or inspections are carried out by an accredited certification institute. The ecological, social and economic aspects of forest management will be taken into consideration.

Each certification body has an information package in, which the method is mentioned.

  PDF- SKAL method

For more info, see websites of other certifiers.