Pest Area Freedom Declaration for P. Kernoviae and P. ramorum

1.0 Declaration

The Biosecurity New Zealand Phytophthora kernoviae and Phytophthora ramorum Pest Area Freedom Declaration will only be provided on the following basis:

  • All timber within the export consignment must have been sourced from a forest that is surveyed as part of the Forest Owners Association (FOA) Forest Health Surveillance Scheme. This timber must be traceable to the forest of origin as per section 2 below.
  • This forest must have been found to be free from Phytophthora kernoviae and Phytophthora ramorum as part of the FOA Forest Health Surveillance Scheme.
  • Only organisations that have approval to use the Phytophthora kernoviae and Phytophthora ramorum Pest Area Freedom Declaration or exporters operating under an End Point Consignment Inspection, from an authorised Independent Verification Agency, may use this declaration on affected phytosanitary certificates.

a. Organisations seeking to gain approval to use the Phytophthora kernoviae and Phytophthora ramorum Pest Area Freedom Declaration should refer to section 2.2 below.

b. Exporters operating under an End Point Consignment Inspection should refer to section 2.1 below for declaration operating procedures.

2.0 Timber Traceability Procedures

The following procedures for timber traceability must be in place for the provision of this Pest Area Freedom Declaration.

2.1 Exporters operating under an End Point Consignment Inspection (EPCI) by an Independent Verification Agency (IVA)

  • All timber (from species listed by Australia as host species of P. kernoviae and P. ramorum: AQIS Import Requirements (offsite link to www.aqis.gov.au) (www.aqis.gov.au) that is not heat treated and that is destined for Australia must be sourced from a forest that is surveyed under the FOA Forest Health Surveillance Scheme.
  • All timber must be supported by a certificate - PDF Link to PDF document (19 KB) | Word Link to Word document (27 KB) - from the forest manager of the log supplier to show that the timber was sourced from a FOA surveyed forest. A new certificate must be produced for each compartment harvested.
  • The exporter must provide the verifying Independent Verification Agency (IVA) with the certificate that certifies the origin of the timber.
  • The IVA must confirm that the forest of origin is surveyed as part of the FOA Forest Health Surveillance Scheme and verify the certificate with the Pest Area Freedom Declaration, section 3.0 below, accordingly.

2.2 Organisations operating under Biosecurity New Zealand approval or under the AgriQuality Quality Assurance (QA) Scheme

  • All timber (from species listed by Australia as host species of P. kernoviae and P. ramorum: AQIS Import Requirements (offsite link to www.aqis.gov.au) that is not heat treated and that is destined for Australia must be sourced from a forest that is surveyed under the FOA Forest Health Surveillance Scheme.
  • The processing facility must confirm that the forest for which logs have been sourced is surveyed under the FOA Forest Health Surveillance Scheme. To confirm that the supplying forest has been surveyed please email: ivan.veljkovic@maf.govt.nz
  • The processing facility that processes these logs for export to Australia must have a system in place to ensure traceability of that timber to the forest for which it was sourced. These procedures must be submitted to your IVA for approval prior to implementation. These procedures will be audited as part of the processing facility’s normal audit process.
  • Upon the request being made for a phytosanitary certificate, the stated declaration, section 3.0 below, must be made on the phytosanitary certificate.
  • The certificate may then be verified, by the verifying IVA, with the additional Pest Area Freedom Declaration for organisations who have approval for the P. kernoviaeand P. ramorum Pest Area Freedom Declaration.

3.0 Pest Area Freedom Wording

"All timber was harvested from areas surveyed and found to be free of Phytophthora kernoviae and Phytophthora ramorum (known as causing the Sudden Oak Death disease)".

Page last updated: 5 November 2008