46 | Sector Focus: North America
CERTAINTY IN FACE OF RAPID CHANGE
SHC OFFERS
The Sustainable Hardwood Coalition validates US hardwoods’ legal, sustainable and deforestation-free status. Rupert Oliver, environmental policy director of American Hardwoods Export Council Europe reports on its latest developments
SHC is now working to finalise – before the end of July 2025 – the web portal to make this data publicly available and, for US hardwood exporters, to automate its compilation alongside geolocation data for delivery with individual export consignments. The web portal is currently subject to an intensive process of pilot testing. This involves working with both US companies and their overseas customers to ensure efficient transfer of the assurance data they need. One objective is to ensure the SHC system interfaces effectively with the EUDR Information System.
Above: The SHC sets out to provide a globally recognised assurance of good forestry practice
In the second half of 2025, work will start in earnest to add a proof of provenance (PoP) procedure to ensure that all American hardwood bearing an SHC claim in the international market can be reliably identified as sourced from specific counties in the US where there is unambiguous evidence of a negligible risk of deforestation and illegal harvest.
The year 2025 has been one of great change, as the second Trump administration seems intent on overturning the existing order both at home and abroad. In a world in which news spreads in seconds and trade passes across many frontiers, the effect of upheaval in the US is immediate and felt nearly everywhere. Meanwhile, technical advances in fields such as AI, data management and analysis, communication, and remote sensing are proceeding so rapidly that few can keep up and no one can say with any certainty where they are leading us. This follows a year when the EU flip-flopped over the timing of EUDR implementation and was forced to clarify various uncertainties, and introduce “simplifications”, in the face of widespread criticism of some aspects of the law by industries directly affected both within and outside the EU.
TTJ | May/June 2025 |
www.ttjonline.com
In such circumstances, the best we can do is monitor changes and technical developments and marry these with those things that are more certain. When it comes to providing a globally recognised assurance of good forestry practice, this is essentially what the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) set out to achieve for the US hardwood sector by establishing the Sustainable Hardwood Coalition (SHC). The SHC uses the latest technology to assess ongoing changes in US hardwood forest cover and determine hardwood provenance at a county level. It combines this with expert evaluation of forest governance systems that have evolved at state level during the last century. In this way, it demonstrates a negligible risk of illegal harvest and deforestation at the original source of the American hardwood product.
Through SHC, the US hardwood sector is working at the cutting edge of sustainability assurance in the forest products sector. It provides an innovative mechanism to ensure recognition of the strong environmental attributes of wood from multi-generational family forestry operations that, to date, have been under-represented in other assurance systems. Like the US hardwood forest on which it is based, the SHC is particularly well adapted to the unpredictable global environment in which it is set, offering certainty in the face of volatility and resilience in the face of rapid change. ■
FURTHER INFORMATION
For more information and to subscribe to SHC’s monthly newsletter, visit:
www.shc-cert.org
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