12 | Opinion
DELIVERING DEFORESTATION-FREE ASSURANCE The US hardwood industry is showing the way in demonstration of
timber legality and sustainability, says American Hardwood Assurance Global Strategy Director Rupert Oliver
At American Hardwood Assured (AHA - www.
hardwood.us), our technologists and risk assessment experts have spent three years working on the AHA Platform to deliver robust assurance of the legal and deforestation-free status of US hardwoods. The US hardwood sector is regarded globally as transparently sustainable and legally compliant. The backdrop to development of the AHA Platform is growing market and buyer demands that this be indisputably proven through provision of solid data. In this regard, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) has been a particular factor. With the fi rst phase of the AHA going live on August 1 2025, the US hardwood sector is now well prepared to demonstrate conformance to the EUDR, with our confi dence reinforced by assurance from legal counsel that there are good legal arguments in EU law for AHA providing county-level geolocations for hardwoods originating in the US.
Our technical work has demonstrated the extent to which the architects of the EUDR underestimated the sheer complexity of commodity supply chains and current level of access to the high-quality data and analytical tools needed to deliver against the demanding information requirements, particularly amongst smallholders and SMEs. But the Regulation is driving innovation and creation of new mechanisms to overcome these challenges. In AHA, we have a working model of a robust jurisdictional risk-based verifi cation system that can be readily implemented by SMEs sourcing timber from smallholders. The legal and deforestation-free claim is backed by independent expert assessment beyond anything any individual operator or regulator can deliver. The decision of the European Parliament to delay
EUDR implementation a further year is frustrating, but perhaps not surprising. However, we will use this to further evolve the AHA Platform. In the next development phase, wood bearing AHA claims will be linked to a robust proof of provenance procedure using blockchain and isotopic/trace element analysis. In conjunction, we are pressing the EU for further amendments to the EUDR. Specifi cally, we are asking that the legal defi nition of the “plot of land” for which geolocation is required be amended to remove the reference to “within a single real estate property” so that it can refer to any area that “enjoys suffi ciently homogeneous conditions to allow an evaluation of the aggregate level of risk of deforestation and forest degradation”. This would allow geolocations to refer to local jurisdictions, when dealing with smallholders, or to whole mill supply areas, forest concessions, or larger private forest holdings. In the meantime, we are encouraging exporters of US hardwood products to start providing an AHA Statement with all shipments and European importers to request them. Having been developed by AHEC with fi nancial support from the US Department for Agriculture, the AHA Platform is currently free to US hardwood exporters. It is intuitive and easy to use, so should add no costs to the transaction.
Widespread adoption of the AHA Platform for US hardwoods will demonstrate how effective the local jurisdictional risk-based approach will be to meet EUDR and other market requirements for evidence timber is fully legal and deforestation-free. In particular, it shows the way in the context of a commodity derived primarily from millions of non-industrial forest owners in a low- risk country like the US.
TTJ | Spring 2026 |
www.ttjonline.com
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