Forestry provides raw materials for construction, furniture, and various wood-based products. Forestry has strong links to food-based industries like coffee, cocoa and beef, where the land management of forests heavily impacts production and sustainability practices.

Despite its vital role, the industry encounters challenges, with deforestation and unsustainable logging practices causing environmental impact, habitat loss and escalating carbon emissions. In response to these issues, regulations like the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) have been implemented to support sustainable and legal timber sourcing.

Increasing consumer awareness and demand for eco-friendly products put pressure on the industry to adopt sustainable and transparent practices.

Key issues facing forestry supply chains

Deforestation
The key driver of deforestation is clearing natural forest habitats to make space for crops and livestock. Illegal deforestation is a critical issue that conflicts with sustainability commitments customer-facing brands often claim in marketing materials and at the point of sale.

Mislabelling
Price discrepancies in timber from different countries with sustainable production standards strongly incentivise country of origin mislabelling. Sanctions on timber-producing countries also encourage a spike in mislabelling to get sanctioned products to market.

Forced labour and ethical sourcing
Forestry activity that links to the production of crops like coffee and cocoa coincides with countries at high risk of labour exploitation. This impacts ethical sourcing claims, which can be fraudulent if the source of origin cannot be adequately verified and certified.

Origin verification for the forestry industry

Source Certain offers two programs to forestry-related clients. Advanced testing methodologies back our Wood Anatomy Program and identify timber genus claims, ensuring the authenticity of wood products. Our Provenance Verification Program is a comprehensive program that creates a reference database of all discrete growing locations (plantations) belonging to a producer. This program verifies the origin of forestry-related products. It also includes periodic referencing of in-supply chain product samples to provide ongoing verification of the integrity of the product and its attached claims as it moves through the supply chain.

Read our case study on Solomon Island Teak Origin Verification

Explore our Wood Anatomy Testing Program

Explore our Provenance Verification Program