GRA update
Throughout the General Assembly, it has become clear that most members recognize the ineffectiveness of the existing approach to Controlled Wood risk assessments, whereby companies are responsible for conducting the assessments themselves.
The requirement for onsite audits in case of ‘unspecified risk’ increases costs significantly for companies, creating motivation to designate areas as low risk. An additional concern is the companies’ general lack of capacity to conduct high quality assessments, e.g. for HCVF areas.
A transparent approach
A potential solution has been proposed by NEPCon in collaboration with FSC and the Rainforest Alliance: A global online database including evaluation of all risk categories for specific areas, called Global Risk Assessment. The purpose is to create a transparent and cost-effective solution that ensures consistency in risk assessments.
The proposed solution is already made available online in draft form at http://gra.nepcon.org. Further inputs from stakeholders are now needed to enhance the level of information, and several technical updates are still needed. Together with FSC and the Rainforest Alliance, NEPCon is currently looking for sponsors to develop the system so that it can be put into practical use by FSC.
The next step
Once the information contained in the Global Risk Assessment website is deemed by FSC-International to be of sufficient quality, FSC will take the final decision on the designated risk level for each country or region, based on inputs from the global community of stakeholders.
