- Press releases
Improved and updated legality verification standards released by the Rainforest Alliance.
- Perspective
If imports of illegal fish can be banned in EU, then why not timber, asked the UK Minister of Environment. He also asked why EU should leave the door to illegal wood open when it has the chance to slam it. The 15th illegal logging update held at Chatham House showed that the case for a…
- Feature
Increased focus on illegal logging and its numerous adverse effects, including deforestation and related climate change, has resulted in clear market demands for documented legality of wood products. As a result, a myriad of different standards and systems for timber legality…
- Market news
A new survey finds that demands for certified products have tripled, compared to the findings of a survey conducted in 2005: Specific requests for certified goods from the customers of importers and distributors have risen from around 10% of sales in 2005 to over 30% in 2008, which is…
- Market news
The UK-based Forest Footprint Disclosure Project has published its first report on major companies' 'forest footprints'.
- Market news
Rainforest Alliance has sharpened its tools to verify legal compliance of timber products: Its two legality standards Verification of Legal Origin (VLO) and Verification of Legal Compliance (VLC), developed under the SmartWood Program.
- Feature
At the Chatham House 15th Illegal Logging Stakeholder Update, the UK Minister of Environment, food and rural affairs Hilary Benn announced the inclusion of social criteria in the Government's sustainability definition for timber.
- Market news
SIG's plants in China, Thailand and Saudi Arabia have achieved FSC chain of custody certification.
- Standard updates
FSC has published a new standard for using the FSC trademarks, FSC-STD-50-001 (V1-0) Requirements for the use of the FSC trademarks by Certificate Holders.
- Market news
Two great new achievements within the paper and publishing sector marks the beginning of 2010: China saw the launch of its first FSC-labelled book, and the Sao Paulo newspaper Metro followed in the footsteps of Dutch and Danish daily newspapers by having its daily paper FSC-labeled.
- Market news
Two leading UK supermarkets - Sainsbury's and The Co-operative Group - are coming to the rescue of threatened Mediterranean cork oak forests.
- Market news
Each year, millions of wooden dowels packed on lorries leave the warehouse facilities of the Danish company Nissenpack A/S and travel to buyers across Europe.
- Feature
During a meeting on the 15th of December, the EU Council of Agricultural Ministers decided against a proposal to put an EU-wide legal ban on trade in illegal wood products - a move that would match the strict US Lacey Act, which is impacting production and trade chains around the world…
- Market news
The leading Danish ethical bank Merkur Cooperative Bank has been financing socially and environmentally sustainable business development in Europe for decades.
- Feature
The Global Canopy Programme - an alliance of 37 scientific institutions in 19 countries - has produced two excellent and user-friendly books on climate change financing.
- Perspective
Ironically, the snow started falling during the last days of the Copenhagen summit where world leaders were gathering to combat global warming.
- Market news
A mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries - REDD - has been on the table for years as part of the climate change negotiations.
- Market news
Some of the issues presented by speakers at the Forest Day 3 event in Copenhagen will have major implications for the forest product industries, although it is hard to tell exactly when or how.
- Standard updates
FSC has introduced a trademark licensing system which will be phased in for existing certificate holders during 2010.
- Market news
NGOs joining the Copenhagen COP 15 climate conference expressed concern about a so-called logging loophole contained in a proposal put forward by developed countries with strong forestry sectors.