PEFC’s International Chain of Custody standard will ensure that PEFC-certified companies meet the requirements of the forthcoming EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which will enter into force in March 2013.

The EUTR will make it illegal to place illegally harvested timber and timber products on the EU market.  The legislation will require that due diligence is applied to all timber first placed on the EU market and also that traders, further down the supply chain, keep track of who timber or timber products were bought from, and where applicable, who they were sold to.   The regulation will apply to everyone trading timber and timber products in the EU, including paper, furniture, wood fuel etc., therefore affecting thousands of companies of any size producing timber domestically or importing it from outside the EU.

The PEFC Board of Directors decided in its last meeting to revise the PEFC International Chain of Custody Standard to ensure that all certified companies meet the EU TR requirements. In close coordination with the EU Commission, PEFC is currently performing a gap analysis as input for the forthcoming Chain of Custody working group meeting at the beginning of February 2012.

“PEFC-certified companies can be confident that the EUTR requirements will be covered through their Chain of Custody certification,” said Michael Berger, Head of Technical Unit at PEFC International. “PEFC certification may also be the most straightforward option for currently uncertified companies to meet the EUTR requirements.”