New anti-deforestation regulation to replace EUTR … With a new anti-deforestation regulation in the pipeline, the EU is turning up pressure on timber and other commodity operators. How will it affect your …

Realising best practice with multi-stakeholder governance … The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) was initially developed and governed by energy companies with an interest in using woody biomass to replace coal and gas. Earlier this year, SBP changed its …

FSC: Blockchain “across the board” in five years … The pioneering ecolabel has been struggling with repeated criticism of its Chain of Custody standard, which has found itself open to fraud and falsification. Now, a pilot test using secure blockchain …

Laboratory techniques to determine species and origin of timber … Today, we publish the first in our new series of thematic articles on the EU Timber Regulation as part of our project ‘Support Legal Timber Trade’. …

What’s your experience with Due Diligence and EUTR? … NEPCon is encouraging EU-based companies working in the timber sector to share their experience with Due Diligence and the EU Timber Regulation …

NEPCon expands course offerings to India and Ghana … India and Ghana have been added to NEPCon’s extensive list of training locations. Earlier this year – for the first time in these two countries – we delivered training on FSC™ and Rainforest Alliance …

Danish regulator questions sale of Myanmar teak … The Danish Competent Authority last week required seven companies to make improvements to their due diligence systems if they are to sell teak imported from Myanmar on the EU market. The case raises …

The Rainforest Alliance and NEPCon disassociate from Woodcert … On 1 October 2018 , NEPCon (Nature Economy and People Connected) acquired the certification and auditing division of the Rainforest Alliance. NEPCon is an international non-profit …

Timber legality verification well received in Brazil … 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 …

Marketing toolkit to highlight your engagement with FSC … Drawing inspiration from the vision of “One FSC”, FSC has released a new campaign known as Together We Are FSC. This campaign is designed to empower certificate holders globally how FSC helps their …

NEPCon joins Danish Alliance for Sustainable Soy … Environmental organisations, government agencies and businesses have joined forces in the fight against the import of unsustainable …

The importance of transparency and traceability towards zero deforestation   … The Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Sustainability Policy Transparency Toolkit (SPOTT) recently evaluated the transparency of 97 companies from the timber and pulp …

Impact Tourism: Giving time, talent, and treasure … Our NEPCon Travel Feed profile on Tripadvisor is now live and we are pleased to have our friends from the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) to write an article in line with our opening theme “impact …

How audits go virtual, auditors tell … Two months after we shifted to remote audits, our auditors reflect on the challenges they have encountered, and steps taken to address these and help develop robust remote audits for a post-pandemic new …

Coming soon: FSC certification for ecosystem services … A sustainably managed forest offers more than sustainable timber and non-timber forest products. It can also provide other ‘ecosystem services’, such as locking up carbon, protecting water supplies …

Sustainability Framework “a goldmine,” says Tetra Pak … The newly launched Sustainability Framework, described as ‘a Swiss Army Knife of due diligence’, is already earning brownie points. Tetra Pak and Procter & Gamble (P&G) were in for a trial – and both …

Madam Nisa and her fourteen hectares of land … Palm Oil is one of the World’s most popular ingredients. Used in many everyday products, from chocolate to cosmetics, global demand for this fast growing crop has increased explosively since the nineteen …

The Baltic paper sector is moving towards FSC … Certification of the paper and printing sector in the Baltic area is taking off: Baltic printing houses may now offer FSC certified publications, which are printed on paper delivered by local certified paper …

FSC permits more flexible trademark use … From now on, FSC certificate holders will have more graphic freedom when they wish to use the FSC logo or …

First forest management standard for Kyrgyz Republic … FSC and NEPCon released the Interim National Standard of Kyrgyz Republic. This standard is the first of its kind not only for Kyrgyzstan but also for the whole region covering Caucasus, Central Asia, …