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 | | AHEC COMMISSIONS GROUNDBREAKING ASSESSMENT STUDY | | | American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) | | 17/08/2007 | | | AHEC (the American Hardwood Export Council) has commissioned Seneca Creek Associates to carry out a major assessment study on the risk of illegal wood entering the supply chain for American hardwood products. The move, a direct response to increasing customer requirements for independently verified evidence that American hardwoods derive from legal sources, coincides with the introduction of a landmark, bipartisan bill - the Combat Illegal Logging Act - in the US Senate.
Before undertaking the Study, AHEC consulted procurement officials in Europe as well as representatives of the main certification schemes and both CPET (the UK Government’s Central Point of Expertise on Timber) and PEFC provided assurances that the Study will meet their requirements for verified, legal “non controversial” timber. The Study will also assess the risk of wood being derived from the five categories of controversial source identified in the FSC Controlled Wood standard.
The five categories of controversial source defined under the terms of the FSC Controlled Wood Standard are:
1. Forest areas where traditional or civil rights are violated
2. Forests where high conservation values are threatened
3. Genetically modified trees
4. Illegal sources
5. Natural forests that have been harvested for the purpose of converting the land to plantations or other non forest use
AHEC and the Hardwood Federation, based in Washington DC, are making it clear that the Study will have teeth, with specific action taken to address any significant issues which may arise. While the scope and nature of this action will be largely determined by the Study’s results, it could include measures designed to help promote certification in high risk areas.
The study results, due by the end of the year, are expected to include maps showing the level of risk that wood derives from illegal or other controversial sources, not just by US state but also by the various individual eco-regions which make up the US hardwood resource.
David Venables, European Director of AHEC, sees the Study as a necessary and timely step to supplement, through independent research, the existing evidence that American hardwoods tick the box when it comes to legal sources. He also believes that the study could be used as the model for establishing legality in other countries. He says: “The single objective of this major piece of work is to ensure American hardwoods can be traded in the confident knowledge that they are derived from ‘legal sources’. The results of this Study, together with existing evidence, will provide us with the knowledge and independently verified data that is being increasingly required. At the heart of this initiative is the determination of the American hardwood industry to set high standards of transparency in the international wood trade and to this end, further initiatives, particularly related to the issue of sustainability, are under discussion. This leading research initiative is setting an example which could be applied in other parts of the world which are working towards verified and legal standards for their own resource.”
Existing evidence that American hardwoods derive from legal and sustainable sources includes information coming out of the US Renewable Resources Planning Act. The latest RPA Assessment shows that the net volume of hardwood growing stock in the US has increased from 184,090 million cubic feet in 1953 to just under 400,000 million cubic feet in 2007 – a true measure of sustainability. | |
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