Green card for US hardwoods

Summary
• The finished, 250-page AHEC environmental risk assessment study was unveiled to the international press at the US National Hardwood Lumber Association Convention in San Francisco.
• The report says there is low risk of stolen hardwood in US exports.
• It assesses application of state and federal environmental and other legislation in the sector.
• The conclusion is that US hardwood is environmentally low risk.

There’s no mistaking the significance The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) attaches to its recent environmental risk assessment of the US hardwood industry. The core aim is to help keep an increasingly eco-oriented international marketplace open to American timber.

The final version of “Assessment of lawful harvesting and sustainability of US hardwood exports” was unveiled at an international press launch at AHEC’s annual meeting in October, held as part of the US National Hardwood Lumber Export Association Convention in San Francisco. Commissioned by AHEC from consultants Seneca Creek, it is an impressive piece of work, dense with detail and 250 pages long. But why was such a heavy-duty document needed? With the world up to its neck in greenwash, the word ‘sustainable’ has become debased, but no-one could seriously argue it does not apply in its truest sense to US hardwood. In fact, according to the US Forest Service, the country’s hardwood inventory more than doubled in the last half century, last year topping 11.4 billion m³ of standing timber, and growth still exceeds harvest by a factor of 1.9.

So you would think the world’s growing band of ‘green’ consumers would be increasingly beating a path to US hardwood in any event. The trouble is, explained AHEC chief executive Mike Snow, the Forest Service statistics are not enough and the US hardwood sector is still short of the legality and sustainability credentials increasingly demanded by customers abroad.

Global requirements

Worldwide, government procurement policies and private sector corporate responsibility programmes are stipulating independently audited and documented evidence of forestry and timber suppliers’ environmental performance. But while take-up of third-party certification may be accelerating elsewhere, in the US it remains patchy and slow. The most commonly cited reason for this is fragmented forest ownership, with an estimated 9.1 million private owners having a small slice of American hardwood forest and 92% of these comprising family plots averaging under 10ha.

“These holdings may only harvest once in a generation; that makes the cost and bureaucracy involved in certification seem unnecessarily burdensome,” said Mr Snow.

Mass forest ownership also makes implementing chain of custody schemes to track wood back to the stump complex. “Some US mills can have several hundred suppliers in a year,” said Mr Snow. ”And the following year that may change to several hundred others.”

Given this structure, it’s hardly surprising that, currently, only 19% of the main US hardwood forestry area is independently certified and, combined, this accounts for just 7.3% of solid timber production.

So the irony is that one of the most environmentally-sound hardwood producers in the world potentially faces having its exports restricted by environmental controls overseas. And this is at a time, with its traditional domestic customer base, notably furniture manufacture, shrinking, when the US industry is setting its sights increasingly on international horizons. As outgoing NHLA president Jim Howard made clear: “We are in a global economy and our new association tagline, ‘strong roots, global reach’ has to sum up our outlook.”

Against this backdrop, AHEC says, its risk assessment project was a logical step. The study was compiled by five independent analysts, headed by Seneca’s Al Goetzl and covers America’s 33 main hardwood producing states. Each is governed by its own environmental and forestry rules and legislation, as well as federal law. The authors assessed all this regulation against global standards and examined how effectively it was applied.

Contested ownership

One key aspect of the project, in line with the stress placed on it by forestry certification schemes, was to assess the risk of US hardwood exports including material from land in contested ownership. The conclusion was that this was minimal because of the “numerous legal processes available to landowners to resolve disputes”.

Similarly, the study states, little stolen timber gets into the export supply chain. It estimates that there are 800-1,000 significant incidents of hardwood and softwood theft a year in the hardwood producing states, involving a maximum of 25,000m³. “Even if half were hardwood trees, it would still account for less than 1% of hardwood production,” said Mr Goetzl.

The key federal legislation covered by the study, plus its bearing on the environmental credentials of US hardwood, included endangered species, clean water, clean air and even the insecticide, fungicide and pesticide acts. It also looked at the application of labour and health and safety laws in the sector.

The study’s summary is that the US hardwood industry is one of the most highly regulated in the world, both in terms of its wider environmental performance and the well-being of workers and other stakeholders. “[At state level] more than 1,000 government entities are responsible for implementing more than 800 forestry programmes of various kinds,” it says.

Closely monitored

Looking specifically at sustainability, the study highlights that US hardwood forests are also among the most closely monitored in the world. “Statistics are systematically collected and analysed,” it says. “They are publicly available for query and regarded by international organisations as highly reliable.”

What this mass of information shows, it says, is that US hardwood is genuinely renewable. “While regional and national data may mask local situations where hardwood forests are being converted, or [timber] removals exceed growth, data for the US overall supports the conclusion that hardwood resources continue to expand.”

According to AHEC, the completed study should now significantly reduce the risk of US hardwood falling foul of environmental regulation and timber procurement policies abroad, particularly with risk assessment systems for weighing up timber’s green credentials attracting growing interest among governments and businesses. In the UK it chimes with the risk assessment-based Responsible Purchasing Policy of The Timber Trade Federation and, AHEC believes, should also qualify as “category B” proof of legality and sustainability under the criteria drawn up by the government’s Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET).

Wider recognition

Early indications are that the study, in conjunction with a responsible procurement policy introduced for its members by AHEC, will additionally qualify US hardwood as legally-sourced under Japan’s public timber procurement rules. The hope is that it will do the same under proposed EU regulations to block illegal timber imports. These would oblige importers to “show due diligence” to ensure their timber sources are legal and sustainable. Putting forward the findings of the AHEC study should be sufficient evidence.

Significantly, it could also qualify US hardwood under the FSC Controlled Wood standard, the organisation’s second tier measure of timber’s environmental soundness for use where certified material is not available.

“The FSC standard is designed to ensure companies avoid trading in five categories of material, including wood that’s harvested illegally or in areas where harvesting threatens high conservation values,” said Mr Goetzl. “The study shows US hardwood is low risk in all five.”

The FSC said it has to review the study at national and international level, before granting American hardwood Controlled Wood status. However, at the NHLA conference, FSC consultant Jason Grant said he thought it left it well placed to qualify.

The study’s final conclusion is the boldest of all, stating that no further proof is really needed to show US hardwood is legal and sustainable: “Given the safety net of national and state regulation, the need for traceability, independent chain of custody or controlled wood certification should not be a crucial consideration for sourcing hardwood from the US.”

Meanwhile, Mr Howard rounded off his farewell speech by calling on the US hardwood sector to set its sights on becoming ‘the renewable, sustainable wood basket for the world'. AHEC clearly believes its study should help it achieve that.