Timber Legality

STANDARDS WE WORK ON

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  “Vriksh” Timber Legality Assessment and Verification Standard have been designed to allow organizations to avoid trading in illegally harvested Wood.
  
  Compliance with this standard allows organizations to demonstrate that they are implementing best efforts to avoid the trade in illegally harvested timber, in support of the international Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) program, the European Union Timber Regulations (EUTR), The US Lacey Act Amendment 2008, The Australian Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 and other such Global Timber Legality Verification Programs. It allows companies to start implementing their own responsible sourcing policies.
  
  Four aspects of legality to be covered under the ambit of this standard are,

  • Legal right to harvest and trade within legally gazetted boundaries
  • Compliance with legislation related to forest management, environment, labour and welfare, health and safety
  • Compliance with legislation related to taxes and royalties
  • Compliance with requirements for trade and export procedures.

  
  

  Major areas of assessment will resolve to address the following issues viz.

  
  

  • Information about raw material origin and sourcing including supply chain and status in transit
  • Risk Assessment for probability of illegally harvested or transported wood fibre entering the supply chain
  • Risk Mitigation: Devising steps to ensure that Illegal material does not enter the supply chain even inadvertently and sufficient checks and balances are developed to enable proper identification of non –conforming material and subsequent segregation.
  • Risk Mitigation would include the principles of supply chain control, principally:
  • Effective mechanisms for tracing timber throughout the supply chain from harvesting to the point of export .
  • Effective mechanisms for measuring and recording the quantities of timber or timber products at each stage of the supply chain.
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  Chain of Custody Certification is an expert report by an independent, qualified and accredited body. To be able to prove the origin of the wood, each processor, producer and trader, that comes into contact with the wood, must possess the certificate.
  
  CoC Certification is therefore intended for processors, traders and distributors of wood, paper and other forest products. Due to the fact, that the certification proves the origin of the wood, the FSC® CoC Certificate follows on forest owners and foresters, that are certified by FSC® certification system in accordance with modern consistent environmental, social and economic requirements on forest management.

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  The EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) prohibits the placing of illegally harvested timber in the European market. The regulation is a major part of the EU’s effort to reduce deforestation and protect at risk tree species as part of the EU Forest, Law, Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan.
  
  It is implemented in all countries in the EU and the EEA (Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland) and in the UK it is implemented as UKTR.
  
  It applies to timber harvested in both the EU and internationally, obligating businesses to assess and mitigate any risks that the timber in their products has come from an illegal source.