Sourcing FSC Controlled Wood? Beware of new corruption figures
If you are sourcing FSC Controlled Wood, you should take stock of new corruption figures released by Transparency International on the 26th of October.
Its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is the prime authority for gauging the corruption level of most of the world’s countries. The index is used as a key source for evaluating the risk of illegal harvesting under the FSC Controlled Wood system.
The CPI ranges between 0 and 10, where a score of 10 indicates the optimal situation with no corruption.
A CPI score below 5 indicates a level of corruption that may imply significant risk of illegal harvesting; field verification of legal harvesting is formally required for sourcing FSC controlled wood from such countries.
Corruption Perceptions Index world map 2010
Corruption from a forestry perspective
If you are sourcing controlled wood from Hungary, then you should be aware that the CPI has fallen from 5.1 in 2009 down to 4.7 in 2010. The country is now ‘unspecified risk’ for legality and field verification of legal harvesting is required for controlled wood sourcing.
Hungary is the only country to have fallen below the critical threshold score of 5 since last year.In 2009, the CPI of four countries - Latvia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Malaysia – had fallen below 5 since the previous year. None of these countries have regained their former score; the CPI of Latvia and the Czech Republic has even decreased further.
Italy’s corruption level shows a remarkably negative development, with the score falling from 4.3 in 2009 to 3.9 this year. This is close to Greece, which scores only 3.5. Both countries are surpassed by for example Turkey with a score of 4.4. These figures show that several EU member states have corruption levels so high that buyers should consider the risk of illegal harvesting.
It is also noticeable that the world's most forest-rich country, Russia, is found towards the bottom of the list with a score of only 2.1.
Lithuania now low-risk for controlled wood
On the positive side, the Baltic state Lithuania went up from 4.9 to 5. The country has now joined the small group of countries and regions worldwide that are low-risk for all Controlled Wood categories.
“I am sure that this will serve our wood industries well on the global marketplace”, says Justinas Janulaitis, Director of NEPCon’s daughter company in Lithuania, NEPCon LT UAB. “This makes Lithuanian wood really attractive on the global market with its increasing focus on responsible wood sourcing. With the new EU illegal timber law in place, this trend will no doubt be further strengthened”.
Assessing the risk of sourcing illegal wood
If you are sourcing controlled wood or just wish to avoid controversial wood, we recommend that you check out the Global Forest Registry Map. The Global Forest Registry is a free online source of information about the risk of sourcing controversial wood from specific areas of the world, and is aligned with the FSC controlled wood requirements. The current CPI figures as well as other sources of information are used to evaluate the risk of sourcing illegal wood.
