FSC initiates the verification of forest supply chain transactions in China, and Europe and the United States increase the legality inspection of Chinese-sourced timber products

FSC initiates the verification of forest supply chain transactions in China, and Europe and the United States increase the legality inspection of Chinese-sourced timber products

FSC will require all forest management units holding FSC certificates in China to participate in transaction verification

FSC require all FSC forest certificate holder in China to participate in transaction verification

For all certified forests in China, FSC requires the submission of sales information for the period from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 on June 30, so that FSC can verify all transactions

To: To each forest certification unit FSC Certified Forest Certificate Holder

    FSC requires all forest management units holding FSC certificates in China to participate in transaction verification. This transaction verification will cover all transaction statements that occurred between January 1 and December 31, 2019.

    The certificate holder involved in the verification of this transaction will receive a notice from its certification body before May 14, 2020, and provide further explanations on the requirements. Certificate holders must submit all transaction statements to the certification body before June 14, 2020. Transaction verification is to compare all transactions that occur in a certain product type, product group, or a certain region within a period of time. FSC has taken a series of actions in response to the phenomenon that some companies mistakenly declare non-certified products as FSC certified products. Since 2017, FSC and ASI, an accredited service organization, have launched transaction verification for multiple supply chains.

1. In 2017, all transactions of bamboo products were verified.

ASI's investigation revealed that in some parts of the supply chain, there were a large number of improper matches between trading partners. Through verification and comparison, some companies that had falsely declared were revoked;

2. In 2018, the transactions of Chinese paulownia and Vietnamese eucalyptus were verified.

In 2018, all fsc-certified Chinese paulownia and Vietnamese eucalyptus between trading partners were verified for transaction. And expanded the scope of transaction verification for the types and types of products such as charcoal, white oak, Hutong wood and Okoume. Certificate holders shared their purchase and sales data with FSC and ASI in 2018 in order to fully understand the severity of the false statement problem in the bamboo supply chain. Then, the certification body will deal with the number of mismatches between companies by issuing non-conformance items (CARs), suspending or terminating those certificate holders that allow erroneous transactions to enter the FSC system;

3. In 2019, the transaction of Chinese paulownia and Vietnamese eucalyptus will be verified.

FSC and Assurance Services International (ASI) started the transaction verification of oak flooring in 2019. Preliminary information shows that oak flooring processors are mainly distributed in Asia and Eastern Europe. Among them, China is the larger oak flooring processing market, followed by Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland. The processed certified oak flooring is sold to the European market. Germany and the United Kingdom are the main import markets for certified oak flooring, followed by the North American market.

     Globally, there are more than 1,600 certificate holders producing or trading oak flooring products. This transaction verification focuses on the FSC certified oak flooring transactions that occurred from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the first quarter of 2019 di. Nearly 400 certificate holders participated in the transaction verification. ASI received more than 1,000 transaction statements, and the transaction verification response rate exceeded 85%.

     Prior to this, FSC and ASI received reports of high-risk oak products and illegally harvested oak entering the FSC supply chain, thus starting the verification of the oak flooring transaction. This transaction verification focuses on the processing and trade of semi-finished and finished oak flooring, and the primary processing and origin information will be further investigated by ASI.

   Through this verification, a large number of companies in China and Ukraine have been included in the blacklist;

4. TRANSACTION VERIFICATION IN A NUTSHELL simple transaction verification method

The revised chain of custody standard (FSC-STD-40-004 V3.0) includes a new transaction verification standard. Its purpose is to ensure that the FSC systematically investigates high-risk product types, tree species and regions, and limits the number of erroneous transactions.

Transaction verification is a comparison process, and then all transactions in a specific product type, group or region are verified within a given time period. At present, in order to choose the certificate holders to be given by the certification body to fill in a downloadable electronic form template and send it to their certification body, or they can choose to conduct an on-site audit, and the auditor manually collects transaction information for ASI verification.

5. FSC has established instructions and penalties for false declarations

FSC works closely with ASI to take action against certificate holders who have not responded to transaction verification requirements, while investigating non-conformities found in transaction verification or timber identification testing. Certificate holders who are found to have deliberately made false statements will face severe penalties, including certificate suspension or termination. For the proposed document (ADVICE-40-004-18) for deliberately false declarations, please refer to pages 24 to 28 of the FSC Chain of Custody Certification Directive (DIR-40-004).

FSC has updated the information in the FSC database and added a blacklist to the database. Companies that enter the blacklist will no longer be able to apply for FSC certification, and certification bodies are not allowed to accept certification applications from blacklisted companies; for frequent replacement of certification bodies or certificate holders Some companies that have not traded for many years but have kept the certificate, or have frequently terminated the certificate and re-applied to be included in the high-risk management;

For companies that make false statements, FSC has formulated severe penalties and adopts global claims and prosecutions. Companies may receive notifications or flyers of FSC claims, so they should be concerned;

Reminder: At present, the EUTR Timber Act in Europe and the Lacey Act in the United States have intensified their market spot checks. The products sold to Europe and the United States are facing increasing coefficients and risks of source legality verification. All related bamboo, wood and paper products companies As well as related traders and forest management units at the source, please make preparations in advance to do a good job of data collection of all transaction information and data management of the chain of custody process; to avoid customers who cannot provide the source of the products that have been delivered and cannot provide traceability documents. High risks such as claims, termination of payment for goods, etc.;

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