CPI 2008
In the FSC Controlled Wood standard, the corruption level of a country is one of 4 indicators used for evaluating the risk of sourcing illegal wood from that territory.
The Corruption Perception Index (CPI), released annually by Transparency International, is accepted as the authority.
According to freshly published CPI figures for 2008, Latvia and Slovakia have reached the threshold of 5 on the CPI scale. This threshold has been set by FSC and means that they can be classified as low-risk countries for legality aspects according to the FSC Controlled Wood standard, unless other legality indicators show a risk.
The Global Risk Assessment website, developed jointly by NEPCon, FSC and the Rainforest Alliance, has been updated with the new CPI figures and indicates that Latvia and Slovakia are now both low-risk countries for the legality aspect, based on available public information including the CPI.
The Global Risk Assessment further classifies Latvia as a low-risk country for the sourcing of controversial wood as all five aspects of controversial forestry as defined by FSC are evaluated positively for this country. Meanwhile, the risk of sourcing wood from Slovakia remains 'unspecified' (as opposed to low) for the harvesting of wood from high conservation areas which are threatened by forestry.
The five categories of controversial material are:
- Illegally harvested wood
- Wood harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights
- Wood harvested in forests where high conservation values are threatened by management activities
- Wood harvested in forests being converted to plantations or non- forest use
- Wood from forests in which genetically modified tress are planted.
Unfortunately, the corruption index of several countries have also seen a negative development. Significantly, the CPI of Italy and South Africa has moved down from above to slightly below 5. Non-certified wood from these countries can thus no longer be sourced as FSC controlled wood unless the company (buyer) carries out its own FSC Controlled Wood verification program for the assessment of legality. Among other requirements, the company needs to describe and carry out regular field audits to verify the origin of the wood.To view a map indicating the legality risk evaluation of all countries according to the new CPI figures, go to the Global Risk Assessment website.
To view the CPI figures, go to the Transparency International website.
