Criteria: Illegal Harvesting
Data Source: FSC National Risk Assessment (NRA) Specified Risk
Last Updated: February 2019
WHY IS THIS CRITERION IMPORTANT?
Illegality occurs when the harvest, transport and/or trade of timber and other fiber-based products is not in compliance with international, national and regional laws (e.g. legal right to harvest not obtained, fees or taxes not paid, fiber from a country with a ban on wood exports, etc.). The use of illegal wood may contribute to or result in many serious consequences, such as; forest ecosystem degradation and conversion, corruption, organized crime, loss of government revenue, reduced profitability for legal goods, human rights violations, loss of consumer trust, financial and jail time penalties, etc.
This criterion helps our members understand the risk of illegally harvested wood entering US supply chains.
SUMMARY
This criterion is designed to identify the risk of illegally harvested wood entering supply streams. According to the Forest Stewardship Council‘s (FSC) National Risk Assessment (NRA), illegal harvesting of wood in the United States is considered ‘low’ risk. The FSC NRA summarizes this designation with the following language, “Identified laws are upheld. Cases where law/regulations are violated are efficiently followed up via preventive actions taken by the authorities and/or by the relevant entities.” For more information about this designation, refer to the full US NRA.
RISK THRESHOLDS
| LOWER RISK | MEDIUM RISK | HIGHER RISK | |
| Illegal Harvesting | An FSC-conducted National Risk Assessment concluded there is low risk of commercial GMO tree use in the contiguous United States. | N/A | N/A |
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
The GMO Trees criterion uses data and results from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) National Risk Assessment (NRA) for the contiguous United States (excludes Alaska and Hawaii). The FSC is an independent, non-profit organization that sets standards under which forests and companies are certified. The National Risk Assessment (NRA) was limited to the contiguous United States, included a public comment period, and contains considerations of legal frameworks, approvals for use and evidence of illegal use and GMO use in U.S. forestry, among other factors. A detailed description of the analysis is available by reviewing the FSC NRA.
POSSIBLE DATA AND ANALYSIS LIMITATIONS
The FSC Centralized National Risk Assessment (NRA) is a coarse level, national scale analysis of risk applying only to the contiguous United States. As such, critical local factors may not be fully assessed.