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New standard for legal timber sourcing: join the consultation
16 December 2011
NEPCon is developing a new standard that provides assurance for the quality and performance of organisations' due diligence systems, set up to reduce the risk that wood products with illegal origin enters the Organisation’s supply chain. We are currently seeking stakeholders' input to a draft version of the standard.
The assurance offered by the LegalSource standard complements other efforts that organisations may engage in, such as FSC certification and procurement of certified products, legality verification covering specific products, and adoption of procurement policies for specific timber products such as paper or packaging.
 Ensuring the legality of wood sources and implementation of due diligence systems are becoming essential for companies operating in the EU, US and Australian markets.
The LegalSource standard has been developed to provide assurance for due diligence systems implemented by organisations that need to ensure conformance with the EU Timber Regulation, and will be offered as part of a complete due diligence system developed and provided by NEPCon. However, operators in markets outside of the EU may also benefit from certification to the LegalSource standard, as this will permit them to offer the same high level of assurance to their buyers.
Join the consultation
Your comments are very important to us! NEPCon is an affiliate member of the ISEAL Alliance and we are embracing a transparent and multi-stakeholder based approach to maintaining the highest level of stakeholder consensus to ensure high quality of our standards and procedures. The development of this standard follows the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards.
NB: Before you review the standard, we recommend you read these short notes clarifying its scope.
How to submit comments: you can submit your comments using this online survey. You can also send an e-mail to NEPCon's Verification Services Manager Christian Sloth at cs@nepcon.net.
Deadline: the stakeholder consultation ends on 16 February, 2012.
Learn more
On 16 January at 1 pm (in timezone GMT +1), timber legality expert Christian Sloth will be hosting a webinar for those stakeholders who wish to learn more or discuss the draft standard directly. Please use this link to join the webinar at the scheduled time.
NEPCon's engagement in timber legality assurance
The LegalSource standard is an important new element in NEPCon’s timber legality program. In October 2010, we launched the LegalSource Gap Analysis tool, which offers a streamlined methodology for initial screening of risk of illegal timber occurring in the supply chain up to the point of entry into the EU. Completion of the Gap Analysis can be seen as part of the preparatory work that an organisation must carry out in order to be certified against the LegalSource standard. NEPCon further offers product-based timber legality verification according to Rainforest Alliance standards.
NEPCon also engages in global efforts to support legal sourcing. One of these is the free online tool Global Forest Registry, jointly managed with FSC and used for assessing risk of unacceptable timber within the FSC Controlled Wood system. We are currently working with partners to develop a Forest Legality Perception Index, which will offer further support for buyers. |
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