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In 2024, FSC and Assurance Services International (ASI) launched a transaction verification (TV) loop on FSC-certified birch wood panels in China and Europe. The preliminary results from the first phase of the TV loop – data collection and analysis – reveal a number of integrity risks in certified birch wood panel supply chains. The risks will be evaluated in the next stages of the investigation. The TV loop captured 3,436 transactions that took place in 2023, as reported by 665 certificate holders with physical possession of certified material from 18 countries in the Eurasian region. They are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China (including Hong Kong), Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Slovenia, Serbia, and Ukraine.
Some of the key findings and the integrity risks they pose to certified birch wood panel supply chains are:
- Around 74 % of the certificate holders reported zero transactions (no purchases or sales) of birch products, many of which were from China. This is indicative of a potential risk because there are multiple stakeholder reports alleging a large supply of birch products originating in China.
- Concerning cases of potential volume mismatch: some certificate holders reported purchases while their suppliers reported zero sales. Additionally, some certificate holders declared the purchase or sale of specific (‘zero transaction’) Betula species that were not within the suppliers’ certificate scope or geographic region.
- A large volume of birch logs purchased from Ukrainian forests may potentially originate from the conflict area. In light of the current suspension of the FSC certificates in specified conflict zones, the reported volume of domestic purchases from Ukrainian forest management units and the volume of wood panels exported from Ukraine are a cause for concern.
- None of the certificate holders participating in this TV loop declared any purchase or sale of birch from Russia within the scope of their FSC certification. However, potential mismatches between the volume of wood purchased and sold through the supply chain may be a result of non-certified wood (including that from Russia) entering the certified supply chains.
An investigation by German publication Der Spiegel shows that Romania’s forests, some of the oldest in Europe, are threatened by large-scale illegal deforestation. The journalists explain in the investigation how several Austrian companies with tens of thousands of employees have made profits by contracting Romanian suppliers who illegally cut down trees.
The forests that the German journalists write about are located in Moldova, in the county of Suceava. The report was based on a previous large-scale investigation by Romanian authorities in the town of Bogdănești, which involved approximately 1,800 Romanian investigators. Among the crimes investigated by local authorities were illegal deforestation, money laundering, and tax evasion.
Key Resources
Methodology
Data Tools
Click here to access the Global Illegal Logging and Associated Trade (ILAT) Risk assessment tool and to download the Forest Trends User Guide describing the functionality of the ILAT Risk Data Tool.
Click here to access the Cattle Data Tool.
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