After EUTR enforcement in EU and the similar measures in USA and Australia, the legality verification with the Third Party Certification is becoming imperative. MFCC has been striving to fulfill the requirement.
Myanmar Forest Certification Committee (MFCC), as the National Governing Body, sets the standards for the certification process is and it has two systems which are Myanmar Timber Legality Assurance System (MTLAS) and Myanmar Forest Certification Scheme (MFCS). MTLAS is for assessing and verifying of legal timber and MFCS is for Sustainable Forest Management, Certified Forests.
MFCC conducted the 2 Days “Training Workshop on Independent Third Party Verification based on Myanmar Timber Legality Assurance System” at Forest Research Institute, Yezin, Naypyitaw.
The objectives of the Training Workshop are to share the MTLAS Knowledge Information and the third party certification process to the Government Sectors especially Forest Management Unit (FMU) Level of Forest Department (FD) and the Extraction Agency Level of Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE).
On the first day, 24th September2018, Mr. Zaw Min, Deputy Director General of Forest Department, MONREC delivered the opening remarks and more than 50 Participants/staff of Forest Departmentwere attended (in the opening session).
At the training workshop, 10Participants from Myanma Timber Enterprise ( Extraction Agency Level), 15 participants from Forest Department(Forest Management Unit (FMU) Level) and 5 participants from the private sectorhave attended.
Mr. Win Hlaing, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MFCC-PEFC Project explained and presented the “Briefing about Myanmar Forest Certification Committee (MFCC)”, “Update Progress of MFCC and MFCC-PEFC Project”, “Update on Progress of MTLAS GAP Analysis” and “Forest Certification”.
Ms. ThawdarNyein, Technical Officer of MFCC-PEFC Project explained and presented about the “Myanmar Timber Legality Assurance System (MTLAS)”, “MTLAS Audit Form” which are to be used in the verifying of legal timber, “Briefing of Certification Process” and the “Field Audit Findings of Certification Bodies which were conducted as the MTLAS Field Testing.”
Mr. Phyo Zin Mon Naing, Assistant Director of Natural Forest and Plantation Division, Forest Department presented about the “Independent Third Party Verification” and “Myanmar Timber Chain of Custody and Forestry Sector Reform”.
On the second day (25th, September, 2018) of the training workshop, all participants conducted the field testing of the MTLAS Audit Form at the No. 34, Pyu Twin Sawmill, Naypyidaw (South) Extraction Agency Office and Forest Department Office at OaktharathiyiDistrict, Naypyitaw. They all presented the findings at each office.
At the Training Workshop, the participants had been divided into three groups and conducted as the Group Discussion and Presentation topics such as “Assessment on the MTLAS Audit Form, Future Training Plan of each department, Requirements for the preparation of MTLAS Auditing” were discussed. Mr. KyawZaw, Director of Natural Forest and Plantation Division, Forest Department and Mr. Win Hlaing facilitated for the group discussion.
The fruitful discussion and outcomes were resulted from the training workshop. All participants from Forest Department (Forest Management Unit Level), Myanma Timber Enterprise (Extraction Agency Level) and Private Sector have presented their future plan on MTLAS Knowledge Information Sharing and their suggestions. Download link for this article can be got here.
