Newsroom

One of the world’s biggest sea carriers, Maersk Line, has announced an ambitious procurement policy for container floorboards. The aim is to ensure that any wood in the container flooring derives from responsible sources. The company plans to invest in 3 million new containers.

Earlier this year, IPA (Indústria de Pisos da Amazônia or Amazon Flooring Corporation) made the decision to engage with the Rainforest Alliance program for Verification of Legal Origin (VLO), based on two equally important reasons: environmental concern and market awareness.

On the 4th and 9th of May respectively, Indonesia and Liberia signed Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) with the EU, pledging to halt illegal timber harvesting in their countries.

Contractor certification is looking promising in Spain, and is likely to boost FSC certification among small and medium sized landowners.

The Australian government has released an "Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011" for public consultation. The proposed Act bans illegal timber products from entering the Australian market and importers of illegal wood products risk a penalty of 5 years’ imprisonment

Tim Grabiel from the organisation of activist lawyers ClientEarth puts the EU Timber Regulation on trial: will it effectively exclude illegal timber from the EU marketplace? The answer rests in the detail where the interpretation of even a single word could be a determining factor

Portugal has joined Australia, Chile, Switzerland and more recently the UK to have a national FSC-endorsed Controlled Wood risk assessment in place, providing guidance for buyers of FSC Controlled Wood.

Rapid expansion of the FSC system combined with long-standing issues affecting the system’s credibility. That is a cocktail which stakeholders of the FSC system are increasingly unwilling to swallow. Greenpeace has reviewed FSC’s progress since its critical 2008 report "Holding the…

Companies manufacturing FSC Mixed Sources products will now find it less burdensome to control their non-certified timber when sourcing from UK forests.

To achieve maximum benefit from your certification, it is important for your FSC products to be visible in the marketplace.

Peter Sørensen has been appointed as NEPCon’s Chief Operational Officer (COO) for Western Europe.

NEPCon is the first organization to report comprehensively on an FSC General Assembly, and is looking to continue this initiative at the upcoming event in June. 
 

What steps can European companies take to keep up to speed with the new EU timber legislation? And do they have enough time? At Chatham House last week, the European Commission shed some light on the next steps for implementing the EU Illegal timber law.

Three concessions held by the company SODEFOR in the DR Congo have successfully gone through Verification of Legal Origin (VLO) assessments carried out by the Rainforest Alliance. The concessions total to 621,225 ha of African rainforest.

Does FSC allow logging practices that lead to widespread deforestation and threaten unique natural values? This is the core message of a TV program entitled "Latvia's Pulp Fiction" produced by Al-Jazeera.

An investor brief published in January 2011 makes a strong case for investing in FSC-certified forests in Canada. It reveals that FSC is superior to competing systems in terms of mitigating risks and creating value for timberland investors.

We have seen companies using the FSC logo without having the necessary paperwork in place and hence without the traceability assurance that is a crucial part of the brand.

Companies operating under the FSC transitory requirements for FSC labeling of chip/fiber products or using uncontrolled co-product inputs in their FSC products, should be aware of the nearing expiry of the transitory exceptions.

It was an historic moment when the FSC International Center endorsed the proposed Finnish FSC standard on 21 January 2011.

Should the forestry benchmark of LEED - the US rating system for green building – be changed, permitting non-FSC schemes to earn green building credits? This question has been buzzing in the forestry and green construction communities for years. Now it’s decided: architects, developers…