On 1 December 2016 (effective date), NEPCon OÜ’s FSC accreditation for Forest Management and Chain of Custody certification in Russia was suspended by FSC’s accreditation organisation, Accreditation Services International (ASI).
It is an SBP requirement that a reduction in scope or suspension of a relevant accreditation, such as for FSC® or PEFC, by an accreditation body leads to the corresponding suspension of an SBP approval. Consequently, approval for SBP biomass producer (including Supply Base Evaluation) and supply chain certification for Russia was suspended as of 6 January 2017 (effective date).
On 21 April 2017, ASI announced that the suspension had been lifted. Following a review to ensure that the other SBP requirements were still fully met, SBP also lifted its suspension (effective 21 April 2017).
In accordance with the ASI accreditation procedures, the ASI suspension decision was subject to arbitration and as a result of that arbitration process the suspension decision has been deleted from ASI’s records.
SBP’s decision to suspend the approval of NEPCon OÜ in Russia was based solely on the requirement that a reduction in scope or suspension of a relevant accreditation by an accreditation body leads to the corresponding suspension of an SBP approval. In the light of the outcome of the ASI arbitration process, SBP has also taken the decision to delete the suspension decision from its records.