UPM is continuing to develop its “origin of wood tracing system” to ensure all its raw material is procured in accordance with the group’s environmental policy.
The company is paying particular attention to timber from Russia which accounted for 85% of the four million m3 UPM imported to Finland last year.
During 2003 UPM’s Forest Division carried out field audits on 145 felling sites in Russia. Half of those checked were evaluated as good and half were acceptable.
However, 10 major non-conformities and 14 minor non-conformities to UPM’s standards were discovered, resulting in deliveries from two supply contracts being terminated and three continuing subject to conditions. Written warnings were given to seven sites and verbal warnings to 12.
UPM said it wants to make its origin of wood tracing system more accurate and get to know the supply chain better.
Achieving this, it said, will require development of information technologies and the availability of Russian forest maps and forest stock information in digital format.
Meanwhile UPM’s UPM-Kymmene Forest AS, established last year for wood procurement in the Baltic states, has begun delivering wood from Estonia and checking the origin of wood.
