Platforms on sustainable timber production, sustainable timber trade, due diligence and legal sourcing
On this page you will find information about other online platforms with information on sustainable timber production, sustainable timber trade, due diligence and legal sourcing.
SPOTT – Sustainability Policy Transparency Toolkit
ORGANIZATION: Zoological Society of London
WHAT IS IT?
SPOTT is a free online platform supporting sustainable production and trade. SPOTT scores tropical forestry and palm oil companies annually against over 100 environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators to benchmark their progress over time. SPOTT currently assesses 100 timber and pulp producers and traders – all of whom have significant operations in highly biodiverse and threatened tropical landscapes across the globe – on the public disclosure of their policies, operations and levels of progress. Issues covered by the assessments include biodiversity conservation, greenhouse gas emissions, land conflicts, and labor rights.
HOW CAN IT HELP ME?
By tracking transparency, SPOTT incentivizes implementation of corporate best practices. SPOTT’s approach will help investors, buyers, and other key influencers engage with the industry in a constructive manner through SPOTT assessments which can inform stakeholder engagement and management ESG risks in support legal and sustainable forest management.
GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS:
SPOTT is made possible through the generous support of UK aid, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Government of Norway.
For more information visit:
www.spott.org
Responsible Timber Exchange & Due Diligence and Risk Assessment
ORGANIZATION: BVRio
WHAT IS IT?
BVRio’s Responsible Timber Exchange is an online negotiations platform for sourcing legal and certified timber products from all over the world. Integrated into the platform is a Due Diligence and Risk Assessment (DDRA) system to help buyers evaluate the supply chain of a timber consignment or verify FSC® and PEFC licenses. The system uses a big data approach, centralizing and analyzing information on legality, supply chain inconsistencies, and social aspects such as labor abuses.
HOW CAN IT HELP ME?
The DDRA system makes it easy and straightforward to trace the supply chain of a timber consignment, helping users assess the risk of illegality as required by the EUTR and other timber regulations. Free reports are available for the analysis of individual links of a supply chain (e.g. forest to sawmill, or sawmill to sawmill), with additional paid options for a full supply chain analysis.
GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS:
The Responsible Timber Exchange is a global platform. The DDRA is for timber products from Brazil. The Responsible Timber Exchange and DDRA were developed with funding from UK aid, Good Energies Foundation, CLUA and E2 Socio Ambiental.
For more information visit:
www.bvrio.com
Preferred by Nature Sourcing Hub
ORGANIZATION: Preferred by Nature
WHAT IS IT?
The Preferred by Nature Sourcing Hub, the largest and most-detailed collection of forest-related risk assessments ever published. The Sourcing Hub helps companies meet due diligence requirements of market regulation such as the Lacey Act, EUTR, and the Australian Illegal Logging Prohibition Act by providing a complete due diligence system, as well as many risk assessments and tools to support the implementation of a due diligence system. The tool also helps governments, the financial sector, and NGOs understand the risks related to sourcing timber from around the world.
HOW CAN IT HELP ME?
The Preferred by Nature Sourcing Hub contains everything you need for due diligence in one place and, best of all, accessing the information is free. With 62 assessments of the risks of illegal timber production and trade the platform covers nearly 87 percent of global timber production. While the timber risk assessments for timber are the most comprehensive, the Hub also contains risk assessments for palm oil, soy and beef that address environmental, social and legality risks in 10 countries. The Sourcing Hub also helps governments, the financial sector, and NGOs understand the risks related to sourcing timber and other forest impact commodities from around the world.
GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS:
Global. The Sourcing Hub contains 62 timber legality risk assessments, covering approx. 87% of global timber production.
For more information visit:
preferredbynature.org/sourcinghub
Open Timber Portal
ORGANIZATION: World Resources Institute
WHAT IS IT?
The Open Timber Portal is a web platform that promotes trade in legally harvested forest products by compiling information about forest sector compliance from government, private sector, and third-party forest monitors in producer countries.
HOW CAN IT HELP ME?
The Open Timber Portal (OTP) brings transparency to timber operations. The OTP makes public previously inaccessible information about on the-ground management practices and compliance with timber legality requirements. It compiles information from three different sources: official concession boundaries and the list of registered forest operators from the government; documents uploaded voluntarily by forest operators on their management and legal compliance; and observations of suspected non-compliance by third-party forest monitors.
GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS:
The OTP structure has been developed to be deployed in any timber exporting country. The platform will initially focus on the Congo Basin, expanding to other regions as resources and opportunities allow. The OTP is made possible by the generous support of USAID/CARPE, NICFI, UKAID and the FAO-EU FLEGT programme.
For more information visit:
opentimberportal.org
TimberLex
ORGANIZATION: FAO
WHAT IS IT?
The TimberLex database is established as an open online resource to provide access to accurate, up-to-date and user-friendly legal information on forest management, timber production and trade from major timber-trading countries across regions. Through reinforcing knowledge and understanding of national legal frameworks governing forestry and timber supply chains, TimberLex enables more effective law enforcement and facilitates national and international trade in legal timber, contributing to the reduction of illegal logging and halting deforestation.
HOW CAN IT HELP ME?
The portal points users to specific measures within legal texts, allows easy and direct comparison between legal frameworks, and creates a repository of additional resources on forestry. TimberLex country profiles are structured around a set of guiding legal elements (GLEs) for forest management,
timber production and trade, developed by FAO through participative consultation, based on international best practices. The GLEs are agreed common elements to create frameworks for timber legality and are divided in four clusters encompassing critical stages of the timber value chain.
GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS:
Global. The TimberLex contains 50 country profiles.
For more information visit:
timberlex.apps.fao.org
Ggsc platform and index - The Global green supply of forest product
ORGANIZATION: ITTO-GGSC
WHAT IS IT?
The Global Green Supply Chain of Forest Product (GGSC), is a global service platform, supported by the International Tropical Timber Organisation, with a view to promoting business information exchange on trade in legal and sustainable timber and forest products worldwide. Under the GGSC initiative, a group of progressive Chinese wood trading and processing enterprises (representing >15% of China’s imports) already committed to increase their sustainable wood sourcing. The platform was launched by timber enterprises, industry associations, international organizations and research institutions all over the world who were participants of the International Forum on “Together Towards Global Green Supply Chains – A Forest Products Industry Initiative” held in Shanghai, China in October, 2019.
HOW CAN IT HELP ME?
As a cooperative platform, the GGSC offers business information, industry reports, news, events from the timber industry and also provides an overview of GGSC members. A core piece of information is the GGSC index, a monthly prosperity index of wood and forest product enterprises in key timber countries and regions. The index is constructed through monthly surveys, statistical analysis and calculation results obtained from industry partners. GGSC is also working on building a Global Timber Index (GTI) in which all other indices will be combined, and a blockchain-based timber traceability system for logs and sawn timber.
GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS:
The GGSC platform and index have a global focus. Currently, the GGSC index is updated monthly for the Chinese market. The African and other region’s timber index are in development, as is the Global Timber Index.
For more information visit:
https://www.itto-ggsc.org/