Exploratory Assessment of a Company’s Due Diligence System against the EU Timber Regulation: A Case Study from Northwestern Russia

Abstract

This study uses a company's due diligence system (DDS) as an operational tool to ensure the origin of wood coming from northwestern Russia. The company exports a majority of its wood products to European Union (EU) countries, and its DDS consists of a statement of origin, geographical information, and field verification audits. Its DDS is assessed against the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR). Enforcement of the EUTR began in March 2013 and is compulsory for all companies importing wood-based material from outside the EU. The DDS must contain three key components: access to information on operator's supply of timber or timber products placed on the market, a risk assessment, and a risk mitigation method. The workflow of the conformity assessment must include a literature review, statistical and field data collection, and further analysis of the requirements. Although enforcement of the EUTR began almost two years ago, there is little research on its implementation. This DDS system showed high functionality of its existing components corresponding with the general requirements of the standards developed by the Nature Ecology and People Consult (NepCon), a non-profit organization recognized as the monitoring organization by the European Commission. This wood origin system also meets the requirements of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification system, while OPEN ACCESSForests 2015, 6 1381 maintaining full harmonization with the EUTR legislation. However, major obstacles persist in implementation of legislation by EU member states, in terms of interpretation of requirements, prosecutions and fines, and the role of third-party evidence.

Impact of European Union Timber Regulation on Forest Certification Strategies in the Finnish Wood Industry Value Chain

“…These finding were in line with Toppinen et al [24] and highly confirmative with Trishkin et al [31], noting that SMEs in Russia are most likely to find it difficult to deal with the EUTR requirements and due diligence, because of lack acquired certificates as well as human and technical resources. The experts in our study were skeptical that these SMEs in particular would adopt forest and CoC certification instead of less costly legality verification systems.…”

“…Additionally, some other policy assessments on the EUTR exist, e.g., [30] analyzing the meanings, accomplishments, and obstacles for the implementation. Trishkin et al [31] analyzed a case company's due diligence system and forest CoC certification (FSC) and found them to comply with the EUTR requirements, while the law enforcement in the EU member states was found immature.…”

Assessment of Compliance with PEFC Forest Certification Indicators with Remote Sensing

“…Academic research on forest certification has increased substantially in recent years [10], and numerous studies have been published regarding the development and implications of certification in different parts of the world [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Many articles have highlighted the role of auditors on the quality of forest standards implementations and potential levels of bias [33][34][35].…”

The Interaction between FSC Certification and the Implementation of the EU Timber Regulation in Romania

“…There are indeed loopholes in the CoC-CW standard that allow big companies sourcing from multiple small suppliers to include a certain quantity of uncontrolled wood in their supply chains [24,35]. Other studies have found that operators acknowledge the risk that many CW categories can be of unspecified origin and may potentially include illegal wood [21,24]. With the uptake in certification and legality verification, some stakeholders expect that smaller operators will be driven out of business, this development potentially affecting the sourcing capacities of bigger processors as well.…”