Guatemala Timber Risk Profile

Mitigate the risks in your supply chain

Learn which actions we recommended to mitigate the risks associated with the timber sources from Guatemala.

Source Certified Materials 

NEPCon believes that third party certification (for example FSC and PEFC certification) can provide strong assurances of the legality of the products they cover. Companies seeking to mitigate the risks of sourcing illegal timber should seek to purchase third party certified materials wherever possible. 

While the European Timber Regulation does not include an automatic “green lane” for certified products, it does recognise the value of certification as a tool for risk assessment and mitigation. The European Commission says that companies “may rate credibly certified products as having negligible risk of being illegal, i.e. suitable for placing on the market with no further risk mitigation measures, provided that the rest of the information gathered and the replies to the risk assessment questions do not contradict such a conclusion.”

For more information on using certified materials in your due diligence, including how to assess whether a certification system meets EUTR requirements, see the page on Certification and Due Diligence.

Mitigation recommendations

There are five recommended actions to mitigate the risks associated with the timber sources from Guatemala:

1. Fully map your supply chain

• Our supply chain mapping tool can help you do this.

2. Obtain and verify documents

• Land tenure documents:
  • General Property Registration (Registro General de la Propiedad)
• Forest management and planning
  • Management Plan approved by the competent authority 
  • Maps - Review maps that show the areas under management, boundaries and other geographic references
  • Annual Operating Plan approved by the competent authority
  • Authorisation process for FMP and AOP, review documentation reflecting the process of authorisation of the Management Plan and/or AOP, including technical field reports
  • Commitment to Recovery - review commitment to recovery that has been legally established between the owner of the landholding and the State
  • Forest Manager's Registration in the INAB 
• Harvesting permission
  • Formal File in CONAP or INAB - shows the authorisation process on which the endorsement for issuance of a licence is based
  • Harvesting authorisation from by CONAP or INAB
• Tax related documents
  • Accounting invoices – check the timber species, volumes and prices (depending on qualities) are correct, cross-check with the shipping tickets to ensure they match with regard to species and volumes shown
  • Fee payment records – check they correspond with the approved volume and species
  • Forest Tax payment receipts - verify monthly, quarterly or end-of-year payment of income tax (ISR) to SAT (depending on the regime in which the user is registered)
  • Income Tax Declaration (ISR) to SAT, can be checked electronically
  • Invoices - cross-check between duplicates of invoices issued and the report submitted to SAT
  • Tax payment records - review payment of tax on the intrinsic value of timber to the oversight institutions (INAB or CONAP)
  • VAT Declaration - consult the VAT declaration made to SAT electronically
  • VAT Payment Receipts - verify monthly, quarterly and annual payment of VAT to SAT (depending on the regime in which the user is registered)
• Harvesting regulations
  • Current Forest License for harvestings authorised by INAB
  • Forest management plan 
  • Reports issued by the forest manager – should contain information on the degree of implementation of the Forest Management and transportation plan
  • Authorisation to harvest in a protected area, must be endorsed by CONAP through its Manual for Forest Administration in Protected Areas
  • License for harvesting and trading wild timber flora products in protected areas – contains authorised species, their volumes and the effective term of the document
  • Environmental document – must be authorised by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Ministerio de Ambiente y Recursos Naturales – MARN) for cases of forest management in protected areas. (This also applies to change in land use outside protected areas.)      
  • Reports issued by the competent institutions in forest matters to learn the degree of compliance with environmental protection measures
• Employment-related documents 
  • Carnet issued by IGSS - verify the existence of a carnet issued by the IGSS to beneficiaries of this insurance mechanism; or identify private mechanisms that comply with the legal rules for workers    
  • Labour contracts - verify that labour contracts between the employer and the employee comply with the rules established by law
• Trade and transport documents
  • CITES license (for CITES species), see LEA list with regard to authorised licences
  • Sales documents – check that products are correctly classified according to species, quantities, qualities, etc. in sales documents, customs declarations, shipping documents and other documents required by law
  • Export License - review export and import licenses, which must be based on a file that meets the national legal requirements
  • Review the supporting documentation that is the basis for obtaining an export licence - certificate of shipment inspection, shipping inspection ticket, CITES certificate (where applicable) and invoice

3. Consult stakeholders

• Neighbours of the property for which application is being made confirm the identity of the owner of the real property
• SAT Reference Office confirms details related to payment of income tax (ISR) or assessment of fines
• Institutions in charge of authorising licenses confirm the existence of technical reports that disclose the activities before, during and after harvesting
• The office of INAB and/or CONAP confirm the level of development of the Management Plan and compliance with it
• INAB confirms that existing and traded volumes are in accordance with the licences approved for a given industrial enterprise, and confirms findings uncovered by the institution for a given enterprise
• MARN Office in the region where the management plan operates confirms whether there are complaints about environmental impact by the authorities or neighbours
• CONAP'S Reference Office confirms the degree of respect for rules for the protection of species protected by CITES or a national list (such as the List of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna in Guatemala – LEA)   
• Employees involved in forest harvesting and/or transportation confirm:
  • They are acquainted with measures for the protection of health and safety on the job, as well as identification of high risk zones and highly hazardous chemical products
  • The ranges of wages of operators, which can be checked against the corresponding legislation (minimum wage), and visit the offices of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare (Ministerio de Trabajo y Previsión Social) in order to verify the existence of any complaints or lawsuits that have been entered
  • The level of knowledge among operators about the existence of labour rights
  • Worker training in health and safety mechanisms, and also in duly approved health and safety regulations
  • Workers’ freedom to organise and to exercise their rights
• Oversight institutions for employment benefits confirm whether the personnel involved in forest operations receive the appropriate benefits
• Forest oversight institutions confirm the status of applications for forest harvesting on indigenous lands where customary rights are claimed   
• Stakeholders, including indigenous leaders, on indigenous lands used for forestry confirm lack of disputes over lands with a forest vocation by communities with rights based on the political Constitution of the Republic
• Office of the Attorney General and/or Office for Human Rights confirms information about any land disputes
• INAB Single Contact Point for Timber Exports, which holds all export licences and their respective supporting documentation, confirms species, volumes and export prices

4. Carry out on-site verification

• Confirm compliance with the measures established by the environmental document for cases of forest harvesting in eligible management categories in protected areas
• Confirm protective measures for water sources, soil erosion, use of chemical products, transportation in the right seasons and other necessary environmental measures are followed in the field
• Confirm protection zones established in the Management Plan (forests, riverbanks, cultural protection zones, and nesting sites, among others) are respected
• Confirm that the volumes, species and location of the forest harvesting is in accordance with the licence granted
• Confirm harvesting is done within the boundaries of the management unit and applied to the properly authorised species
• Confirm harvesting complies with the Management Plan, especially with regard to minimum cutting diameters, species, volumes, seed trees, trees for future harvest and protected species
• Confirm via maps that the location of the management unit, the AOP and other geographic references are in accordance with the authorisation
• Confirm the role of the forest manager in the forest harvesting
• Confirm the legal principles governing health and safety are complied with in the field
• Confirm implementation of the use of personal protection equipment and measures for preventing work-related accidents
• Confirm that no minors are employed in the harvesting activity
• Confirm the intangible management categories in the Guatemalan System of Protected Areas (Sistema Guatemalteco de Áreas Protegidas – SIGAP) that are administered by CONAP are respected (especially for national parks)
• Confirm the process of acquisition and issuance of shipping waybills (in the case of authorisation by CONAP) or forest shipping tickets (in the case of authorisation by INAB)

5. Conduct targeted timber testing

• Conduct timber testing on samples of purchasd material to verify the species or origin of timber, where appropriate