For some countries, we have divided the risk assessment into different ‘source types’. We consider these source types to be an important feature of our risk assessments as they make the assessments as relevant as possible to your supply chains. But what do we mean by them?
Forests in a country may face different levels and types of risks of illegality. It might be, for example, that there is risk of illegal harvesting in natural forests but not in plantations. Or it might be that the risks of illegality in one part of a country are greater than those in another part of the country.
Wherever the risks of illegality differ between different types of forest, we identify them and differentiate the risk assessment to reflect these variations. The different features of forests that we consider – that is, the source type characteristics – are:
- The forest type, e.g. whether the forest is a plantation or a natural forest
- The location of the forest
- The legal status of the forest, for example whether it is protected or production forest
- The ownership of the forest, for example whether it is privately or state owned
- The management of the forest, for example whether it is managed by private companies or by the state.
We have only defined different source types for countries where the legality risks differ between different source types. If there’s no significant difference in legality risk between, say, privately owned and state owned forests, then we do not list these as source types for that country.
For example, in Malaysia the risks of illegality vary between different geographical regions. We have therefore created source types in Malaysia for Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, and we have created separate risk assessments for each of these regions.
As another example, in Brazil the risks of illegality vary between natural forests and plantations. Some areas of law only apply to natural forests, not plantations. Other areas of law apply to both, but are at risk of being broken in natural forests and only have a negligible risk of being broken in plantations. We have therefore created source types for plantations and natural forests in Brazil, and we have differentiated the risk assessment each of these source types.