Professional Technical Support for the Forest and Wood Products Industries

On 6 December 2022 The Commission welcomes the provisional political agreement just reached between the European Parliament and the Council on an EU Regulation on deforestation-free supply chains. Operators and traders in the EU will have to prove that products are both deforestation-free (produced on land that was not subject to deforestation after 31 December 2020) and legal (compliant with all relevant applicable laws in force in the country of production).

GFS has revised the Wood Tracking Program (WTP) to comply with the new EUDR regulations for companies trading with EU markets to ensure compliance to both legality and deforestation-free requirements.  The GFS WTP has provisions for evaluation of Risk to identify timber from deforestation areas and to segregate the material from production and trade to EU buyers.

Global Forestry Services has completed the development of the Sabah Timber Industry Master Plan (STIMP) for upstream and downstream timber industries in Sabah, Malaysia, as of Oct 2022. The STIMP was designed to identify and resolve constraints to the forest and timber industries to revitalize industrial growth and sustainability in relation to the Sabah Forest Policy 2018.

A comprehensive Master Plan included a Road Map for developing sustainable timber supply through plantation establishment by forest concessions and smallholder tree banking systems, diversification and value-added manufacturing based on plantation timber and enabling factors that  to increase efficiency and reduce costs, such as a Digital Transformation of administration and revision of the Sabah Timber Legality Assurance System as a Due Diligence System recognized by international markets.

Global Forestry Services has revised the Legal Verification Services and Wood Tracking Program to better mitigate risk of unknown & illegal material entering the supply chain through site evaluation of forest management and a documented supplier risk assessment to verify wood products originate from Verified Legal (VL) sources.

Legal Verification Services provides on site assessment of forest management systems against regulatory requirements with respect to Sustainable Forest Resources, Environmental Protection and mitigation from impacts and provision of Social Benefits to local communities and forest workers.

The Wood Tracking Program is used to assess and monitor a formal Chain of Custody (CoC) system for manufacturers and trading companies to track the raw material used in wood products to a verified legal forest or plantation area. Legal Verification Service (LVS) provides for field evaluation of legal compliance to document and trace raw material from forests or plantation areas as Verified Legal and Low Risk.

Companies participating in the GFS Wood Tracking Program must have a formal Chain of Custody system to trace material from purchasing through production and sale of wood products. Purchases of raw material and wood products must be vetted through a formal Risk Assessment that documents Low Risk of all material entering supply chain. The Risk Assessment consists of evaluating Country Level Risk, Material /Species Risk & Operational Risk. Any material not considered low risk must not be used in the GFS WTP. The GFS LVS & WTP is designed to support systems for due care for the Lacey Act and due diligence to meet EU regulations (EUTR & EUDR), the Australian Illegal Logging Act and Japan Clean Wood Act, etc.

GFS provides monitoring of legal verification of ALL long-term forest management and licensed harvest areas in Sabah, Malaysia based on compliance to the current Sabah Forest Legality Standard for forest operations developed by the Forestry Department Sabah (SFD).  GFS has been monitoring the FLEGT Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS) for all forest licensed in Sabah, Malaysia since May 2009 that is contracted to continue through April 2024 supported by the Sabah Forestry Department.

SFD developed the Sabah Legality Standard for forestry operations (TLAS Principles 1-4 dated Nov 2020) for field evaluation of compliance that is scheduled for revision in 2021 to include all key elements of forest certification standards.  Sabah Timber Legality monitoring includes verification of legality through manufacturing and trade based on TLAS Principles 5&6 Nov 2020.

GFS conducts annual assessments for all manufacturing and export companies to document compliance to the Sabah Legality Standard for processing and trade. Summary reports and of all clients are publicly available on the GFS Client Database. Statements of Compliance are issued only to companies that demonstrated full compliance to the standard with no major Gaps.

GFS developed the Philippine Due Diligence System for the timber industry in the Philippines on behalf of the FAO supported project through Philippine Wood Producers Association (PWPA) & Chamber of Furniture Industry of the Philippines (CFIP).  GFS provided a series of procedural manuals to support the establishment of a formal system to verify compliance and Chain of Custody systems for the Philippine timber industry to meet the Due Diligence requirements of the market, as buyers want a single source of information that is consistent and reliable.  The Philippine Due Diligence System sets out both a framework for the Philippine Industry & Trade to follow in regards to Chain of Custody system in the form of procedures that is integrated with a formal monitoring system that can be managed by the timber associations to document implementation by their members.  The Philippine Due Diligence System was developed and field tested on 10 companies in 3 regions of the Philippines.

GFS participated in the consortium led by Ata Marie Group to support the Ghana Government – Forestry Commission to develop a Wood Tracking System to meet their commitments in the FLEGT VPA and the EU Timber Regulations.  The Ghana Wood Tracking System was developed as an integrated IT database project to capture forest inventory and tree harvesting data that can be tracked through production and export of finished wood products.  The Wood Tracking System incorporates a verification system that includes both data and field evaluation of compliance with the Ghana Legality Standard. GFS provided the expertise for designing the verification system for the forests; wood processing and trade of wood products being used in the Ghana Wood Tracking System.