PEFC and Interpol together against corruption in the timber industry

30 September 2014 News

With illicit trade and laundering of illegal timber worth an estimated 10-30% of the global wood trade, finding solutions and proposals to protect both the environment and the economy is vital. 

Responding to this need, PEFC Italy, along with Conlegno, RiSSC, Risk Monitor and CNVP have launched a project aimed at preventing criminal organizations infiltrating into the EU timber market.

The TREES project (Timber Regulation Enforcement to protect European wood Sector from criminal infiltration) aims at promoting standard procedures to prevent the risks of criminal infiltrations into the European market. By the end of the project, a standardized set of guidelines, actions and strategies to overcome difficulties in Due Diligence implementation will be developed, providing market operators with suggestions on how to carry out risk assessments and risk procedures.

"We are extremely proud to be a part of this research,” said Antonio Brunori, Secretary General of PEFC Italy. “Through this project we can actually help the legal operators within the wood industry, as well as the consumers across the continent. In addition, this project will strengthen the role of PEFC within the Italian wood supply chain, which is still too often affected by illegal imports.”

The project’s first meeting will take place on October 3 in Godega di Sant’Urbano (Veneto region), located in the Treviso province of Italy, during the traditional annual meeting of the area’s wood associations. This year the theme is dedicated to the "forest, wood, and working together into the future". On the following day, the details of the project will be presented to the Italian wood operators during the National Wood Convention.

Conlegno (Consorzio Servizi Wood Cork) is the lead partner of the project, together with PEFC Italy, RiSSC (Centre for Research and Studies in Security and Crime), Risk Monitor of Bulgaria, and the Dutch CNVP (Connecting Natural & Values people Foundation). Other organizations involved in the project include INTERPOL, PEFC Germany, PEFC International, PEFC Norway, PEFC Slovakia, PEFC Slovenia, PEFC UK, and the Bulgarian Investigators' Chamber.