It is now possible to get free on-line information about the risk of sourcing wood from controversial sources.
A Global Risk Assessment website has been developed by NEPCon in collaboration with the Rainforest Alliance and FSC.
The website currently covers more than 150 countries - all countries with more than 100,000 hectares of forestland. The information provided is free and currently available at country level. As information becomes available, it will be further developed to provide information below country level as well.
The Global Risk Assessment homepage is expected to be used by companies holding a combined FSC Chain of Custody and Controlled Wood certificate. However, it is also useful for other stakeholders having an interest in responsible forestry. We are currently looking for sponsors for the further development of the website.
Why risk assessment is important in the FSC system
The FSC system currently allows mixing of FSC-certified material with non-certified material in ‘FSC-mixed’ products. However, with the introduction of the FSC controlled wood standard (FSC-STD-40-005), companies mixing FSC certified wood with non-certified material need to avoid sourcing of wood from controversial sources, as defined by FSC:
- Illegally harvested wood
- Wood harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights
- Wood harvested in forests where high conservation values are threatened by management activities
- Wood harvested in forests being converted to plantations or non- forest use
- Wood from forests in which genetically modified tress are planted.
Risk evaluation of the sourcing areas is an important component of the Controlled Wood scheme. The FSC Controlled Wood standard includes specific requirements for risk evaluation as well as a definition of controversial sources. However, experience has shown that many companies have difficulties compiling the risk assessment, mainly due to lack of sufficient data or problems in locating existing data.
View and comment on the Global Risk Assessment Survey
The first version of the FSC Global Risk Assessment website is now ready for public consultation. The tool can be found at: http://gra.nepcon.org/. To provide your feedback, you can access our online survey. Inputs can also be provided by sending an email to NEPCon's coordinator of the GRA project: Roman Polyatchenko at rp@nepcon.org.
The closing date of the consultation is October 15th. Several FSC National Initiatives and regional representatives of NEPCon and Rainforest Alliance have already provided information for the current version.
Further development
We recognize that there are many gaps in the information for some of the indicators, and hope to be able to close many of these gaps and increase the quality of the information based on feedback from stakeholders.
FSC encourages certificate holders to use the information included in the Global Risk Assessment as guidance. In the future, FSC will decide if the information contained in the Global Risk Assessment is accurate enough to make this conclusive. Active participation of stakeholders in providing additional sources of information for risk assessment is crucial.
Support the Global Risk assessment website
NEPCon has been funding the development of the website so far, however our non-profit resources are limited. We are currently looking for sponsors for the further development of the Global Risk Assessment website. Additional funding would allow the website to become more attractive and user-friendly, and it would be possible to carry out additional systematic resarch on sources of information. Organizations interested in becoming sponsors for the Global Risk Assessment website should contact Anne-Sofie Forfang at asf@nepcon.org.