Certification - FSC & CITES

Forest Stewardship Council

What does FSC® mean?

The Forest Stewardship Council ®, abbreviated to FSC®, was founded in Toronto in 1994 by a large number of interest groups with an interest in forests.

As a 3-chamber representative body, the FSC® brings together ecologically, socially and economically motivated individuals and organizations. No one is excluded; no chamber can dominate the other; no one, neither environmental associations nor the business community, determines the work of the FSC®.

The FSC® is independent. The current overview of FSC International members can be found on the FSC® homepage (English/Spanish). FSC International has established national representatives, the so-called working groups, in important forest regions of the world. One of these groups is the FSC Working Group Germany.

The homepage provides information about members and key activities: FSC-Deutschland.de.

The award of the seal of approval is subject to the following conditions:

a valid forest management certificate from the forestry company
a valid and closed chain of custody.

It is essential that the certificates/evidence have been issued by one of the seven certification bodies currently accredited by FSC International. Who these companies are, how they work and how you can get in touch with them if you are interested (trade, processors) can also be found in detail at FSC Germany.

The FSC quality mark is not only awarded to German timber. It is the only label that certifies good forest management worldwide and may be used on the product due to the exact tracking of the product chain from origin to product. By means of strict controls by independent third parties, a maximum is done to ensure the credibility of the FSC concept. At least this is what the federal association“Die Verbraucherinitiative” attests to the FSC®.

Sustainability - FSC®

You receive products from near-natural forestry. Many of our products are labeled with the FSC® certificate recommended by WWF & greenpeace, i.e. they come from an FSC-certified source.

Our company is FSC®-certified under the reg. no. TSUD-COC-001718-XB.

Cites

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), signed in 1973, is a convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora to protect them from overexploitation. Today, CITES grants varying degrees of protection to more than 37,000 animal and plant species, regardless of whether they are traded as living specimens, their parts or products made from them.
The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation is the German enforcement authority for the implementation of the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (WA=CITES) in the Federal Republic of Germany.

More general information on this can be found at: https://www.bfn.de/thema/cites

Information on protected wood species can be found at: https://www.bfn.de/holz-holzprodukte

The complete list of protected timber species is available here: https://espen.de/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Liste-der-geschuetzten-Holzarten-08_23_pac.pdf

If timber species are listed in Annex II and III and are offered by ESPEN, they must be registered with the competent authority, the Darmstadt Regional Council. New arrivals in the EU are only imported with the corresponding import licences from the BfN.