Trust in
Timber By Alun Watkins, PEFC
A date that should be indelibly inked into all timber- related diaries is 3 March 2013, when new EU rules combating illegal timber entering the timber supply chain come into force. For those operating in the UK timber and construction trades doing nothing is not an option. Alun Watkins, National Secretary of PEFC UK explains…
Back in 2008, the European Commission proposed a regulation to help reduce illegal timber products coming into the EU. In October 2010, the EU Council of Ministers formally adopted the Illegal Timber Regulation (ITR) – now commonly called the EUTR. This will apply to all Member States from the 3 March 2013. As the fourth largest net importer of timber in the world, the UK industry must be responsible to ensure that the timber and wood-based products it uses comes from legal and sustainable sources. So it also now needs to be fully conversant with how the EUTR will affect the supply and sale of these products, especially across the construction sector.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies will be under scrutiny. And it will need to be clearly demonstrated to clients that you and your supply chain are committed to forestry management by sourcing sustainable material for any project involving timber. One way of meeting most of the requirements of the EUTR, and the most effective way to guarantee that the timber products you sell meet the highest environmental standards, is by procuring them from independently certified forests which are assessed against stringent sustainability benchmarks.
|58| ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
The EUTR is designed to strengthen efforts to halt illegal logging globally and reduce environmental damage and biodiversity loss across the globe (especially in sensitive areas like Brazil and Indonesia) but crucially to help stem the flow of illegal timber into the EU zone. It is not designed to ensure sustainability of all timber on the UK and EU market. The hope is that it will create an even stronger incentive for suppliers and contractors to ensure that illegal timber is excluded from the supply chain and to make sustainable timber a ‘normality’.
Basic obligations of the EUTR include the ‘prohibition’ on the first placing of illegal timber and timber products on the EU market. So those ‘first placing’ the timber products, need to take important measures to verify the legality of the timber or timber products they are placing on the EU market – either for distribution or use. ‘First placers’ on the EU market will do this through employing effective systems of due diligence. Failure to implement appropriate due diligence systems could result in potential legal action. The due diligence system needs to contain measures and procedures to provide clear access to information on the supply of the timber or wood-based products placed on the market, with appropriate risk assessment procedures in place to evaluate the risk of illegally harvested timber. This may include additional information or documents on the timber or third party verification.
Those trading in timber need to employ basic methods of ‘traceability’ throughout the supply chain. This will include keeping records for five years detailing from
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192