Germany

In January 2007, the German Federal Government issued a Joint instruction on the procurement of wood products.  The policy states that wood products must demonstrably come from legal and sustainable forest sources, and that recycled products should be preferred over virgin sources. The policy is mandatory for the Federal Administration and covers rough, semi-finished and finished products. In the case of composite material products, the policy applies only if virgin timber is the most significant component. The policy does not cover paper or paper products.  The policy is valid for 4 years, and which point it will be reviewed.

FSC and PEFC certificates are accepted as proof of sustainable forest management. Other evidence will also be accepted (including certificates of other schemes), provided the bidder is able to demonstrate that forest management was consistent with the FSC or PEFC standards. Evaluation of other evidence will be undertaken at the expense of the bidder by the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products (BFH) and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN).  Though there has been no public evaluation of forest certification schemes, the policy allows that if deficiencies in the FSC and PEFC systems become known, an evaluation will be undertaken by the BFH and BfN. If the deficiencies are confirmed, they will allow up to 12 month for improvement. If the deficiencies are not corrected within this time period, the respective scheme will be excluded.

The policy documents can be downloaded from the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection website, as linked below.

Joint instruction on the procurement of wood products  (In English)

Explanatory Notes regarding the procurement of wood products (In English)

Contact information

 Mr. Birger Rausche

 Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture

 Email: Birger.Rausche@bmelv.bund.de

 Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information on existing national timber procurement policies, we recommend checking with the national procurement policy contacts for the most up to date information.