US study digs deep

Summary
• Sponsored by AHEC, Seneca Creek Associates is undertaking a study into the risk of illegal wood entering the US?hardwood supply chain.
• The challenge centres on the scale of the project.
• Data will be used to assess adherence to FSC and PEFC standards.
• Final results are expected in 2008.

Worldwide business and government timber procurement is constrained by increasingly strict environmental rules and guidelines. So a major study under way on the risk of illegal material entering the supply chain for US hardwood products could prove invaluable in ensuring their continuing international market access.

Commissioned by The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) in the summer this year, the study is being undertaken by analysts Seneca Creek Associates. AHEC European director David Venables described it as a “very significant research project” with the key objective being “to demonstrate that American hardwoods can be traded in the confident knowledge that they are derived from legal sources”.

Just quite what an undertaking the study represents was also highlighted by one of the authors, Al Goetzl of Seneca Creek Associates. The challenge for Seneca Creek, he said, centres on both the scale of the task and, crucially, the state-by-state variance across the US in laws and regulations on sustainability. And the wide ranging evaluation process will extend right down to the risk of timber theft or trespass, related directly to ownership and the contractual rights to sell timber.

Risk assessments

Risk assessments are well under way, by both eco-region and state, with a team of Seneca Creek consultants, led by Mr Goetzl, analysing the relevant legal frameworks that are in place to ensure that hardwood is harvested legally and sustainably. All of this data will be used to assess adherence in the US hardwood sector to the standards developed by FSC and PEFC on using wood from controversial or controlled sources.

This could be particularly relevant to the UK construction sector, where “whole project certification” seems set to be a growing trend.

The latter entails a single environmental certification being given to a building project, rather than just the individual timber and wood products components carrying their own, individual certification. The FSC Project Certification, the first of which was given to the Hollybrook Homes for the Westside Apartments building in Ilford last year, demands that a minimum of 50% of all timber used in a project is FSC-certified and that the other 50% is sourced from forestry meeting its “controlled wood” standard.

The intensive programme of work the Seneca Creek study entails will continue over at least the next two months, with the final results expected early in 2008.

Mr Goetzl views the study as timely. “The results of this complex piece of work will hopefully play a useful role in informing the debate on both legality and sustainability in the hardwood forests of the US,” he said.

For Mr Venables there is only one way to confirm the widely held presumption that the risk of illegal hardwood entering the US supply chain is very low and that is third-party sanctioned evidence.

“The study’s value will be in the robust, independently verifiable data, amassed across the states and eco-regions making up the US hardwood resource,” he said. “It will also include recommendations for action to address significant issues which may arise.”

Forest inventory

Recent data from the forest inventory system in the US, which regular monitors forest growth and removals, is also helping to inform AHEC with key indicators on sustainability. The inventory shows forest growth in the hardwood producing states exceeding removals by a wide margin, indicating an increasing rather than a depleting resource base. And recent figures from the US Renewable Resources Planning Act confirm that the hardwood growing stock in the US has more than doubled since 1954. In fact the current inventory is now estimated to stand at more than 10 billion m³ and to be growing at 40 million m³ a year. It has also been shown that fertile forest soils and favourable growing conditions also mean that US hardwood woodlands are most effectively renewed through natural regeneration, which has clear benefits for preserving natural habitats and biodiversity. And these forests are additionally claimed to provide a greater diversity of species than any other temperate hardwood resource.

“The US provides a tremendous and sustainable wealth of hardwoods which will inevitably play an increasingly important role in the long-term supply of hardwood fibre to global markets. The study should help to reassure buyers worldwide that the US is a low-risk supplier,” said Mr Venables.