Environmental group WWF-UK has teamed up with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to develop a fast-track guidance standard to help the timber industry meet the new EU Timber Regulation (EUTR).
The announcement follows just weeks after the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) said it was developing a due diligence system to enable its certificate holders to gully meet the requirements of the EUTR, which will criminalise the import of illegally logged wood products.
WWF/BSI’s development of a new Publicly Available Specification (PAS) will further support the work of the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) set up by WWF in 1991, to promote sustainable forest management.
PAS will build on GFTN’s methodology for responsible sourcing of forest goods, and is expected to help improve traceability of timber, provide a framework for robust verification and to mitigate the risk of illegal timber in supply chains.
“We want to extend our work with business by taking this activity a stage further as the new regulation approaches,” said Julia Young, manager of WWF’s GFTN in the UK.
“The new PAS will provide effective guidance, based on industry-wide consensus, for effective due diligence for forest goods and give confidence to stakeholders that the industry is meeting its legal obligations and able to understand the need to commit to responsible forest trade.”
A draft of the PAS is expected to go out for public consultation in the early summer next year and published by October 2012.
