Main objective
The main objective of the project was to develop national risk assessments according to the Sustainable Biomass Partnership Sustainable Feedstock Standard for the five countries.
Project approach
Preferred by Nature (formerly known as NEPCon), on behalf of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), carried out a project that aimed to develop risk assessments covering the risk of illegal harvesting and usage of GMO trees for 20 timber producing countries that would feed into FSC's centralised Controlled Wood National Risk Assessments Framework (NRAF).
Preferred by Nature had estimated a significant overlap (approximately 50%) between the FSC NRAF and the SBP Sustainable Feedstock Standard. In the case of Lithuania, a field test had already been carried out by Preferred by Nature for the FSC guidelines on establishing NRAF. However, no field test had been conducted of the FSC guidelines on establishing NRAF in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Portugal.
Hence, for the Lithuanian risk assessment, the process was slightly different because the focus was on the additional indicators from the SBP Sustainable Feedstock Standard, which was not covered by the previous FSC NRAF draft. However, in case of Estonia, Latvia, Portugal and Denmark, since no previous FSC NRAF draft was available, the risk assessments considered all the indicators in the SBP standard. More specifically, the following steps were taken to develop the regional risk assessments:
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Initially, a draft risk assessment was prepared by the Preferred by Nature team with help of external consultants. During this phase, preliminary analyses was carried out using different sources of information, including applicable legislation, reports from state authorities and other stakeholders, various databases as well as statistical data sources. With the support of a SBP representative, Preferred by Nature clarified the format and interpretation of the SPB standard and thresholds for risk levels.
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Active interaction with key stakeholders was completed in the following phase, and the focus was on explaining the concept and purpose of the project and invite stakeholders to participate in the stakeholder consultation including attending a stakeholder workshop. A list of identified key stakeholders was and important outcome from this phase.
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Following this, a stakeholder consultation workshop was conducted with stakeholders who had expressed interest in the risk assessment. The workshop focused on the identified or potential specified risk areas and included a presentation of mitigation actions that may be applied to mitigate the identified risks in an efficient way by the sector. A representative of SBP participated in the workshop.
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A final revised version of the risk assessment was prepared taking into consideration the result of the stakeholder consultation including the stakeholder workshop as well as discussions with SBP. Disagreement to any points in the risk assessments was clearly described and documented.
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Finally, the final version of the risk assessment was submitted to SBP for formal approval
*Dansk Energi, Dansk Fjernvarme, Dansk Skovforening, DM&E, De Danske skovdyrkerforeninger, HedeDanmark, DSHWood, BF Skovflis, Lindenborg Skovselskab, Brahetrolleborg Skov & Landbrug, Natur Biomasse, Skovbygaard, Haderup Skovservice, Skovbyholm Grønt.
Expected results of the project
The expected outcomes of the project were:
- To develop five regional risk assessments that covered the applicable criteria and was developed in accordance with SBP requirements for regional risk assessments submitted to the SBP secretariat for formal approval.
- To conduct consultation workshops with relevant stakeholders including active discussion on the identified or potential specified risk areas and presentation of mitigation actions that may be applied to mitigate the identified risks in an efficient way by the sector.