Controlled Wood certification for forest operations

In collaboration with the Rainforest Alliance, NEPCon offers third-party controlled wood assessments that lead to FSC Controlled Wood certification of forest operations. A Controlled Wood certificate demonstrates that the forest is operated legally and that no other highly controversial management methods are used in violation of civil rights or jeopardizing highly important environmental or cultural values.

What is controlled wood?

Controlled wood must meet the following basic requirements:

1) The origin of the material must be known
2) The wood must not come from sources classified as controversial by FSC.

The FSC system defines five categories of controversial material:

Illegally harvested wood
Wood harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights
Wood harvested in forests where globally significant high conservation values are threatened by management activities
Wood harvested in forests being converted to plantations or non- forest use
Wood from forests in which genetically modified trees are planted.

Benefits of controlled wood certification

Controlled wood certification enables the operation to forward FSC’s Controlled Wood claim to FSC certified buyers. Controlled wood is important in the FSC system because it can be included in FSC-certified ’mixed sources’ products, in which only a part of the product is made from FSC-certified wood. In many cases, lack of sufficient supplies of 100% certified wood has created a demand also for FSC controlled wood.

Controlled Wood certification may be the first step in a process leading to full FSC certification. By achieving controlled wood certification, the operation has demonstrated its compliance with the most basic parts of FSC certification, including the delivery of the necessary documentation and the establishment of relevant procedures. With these aspects in place, the operation has a good basis for developing its management practices further to comply with the full range of FSC requirements.

Operations with a long-term goal of becoming FSC certified may choose joint FSC pre-assessment and controlled wood assessment, to get the best basis for preparing for full certification.