Controlled wood

FSC forest management certification requirements are demanding for forest managers to implement. Supply of certified wood is often not sufficiently available to meet demand. Therefore, FSC allows companies to source controlled wood to make up a limited percentage (up to 30%) of the total manufactured product. Controlled wood provides an acceptable option for those companies that cannot procure themselves enough FSC-certified material and still offer consumers the possibility of purchasing products from certified and controlled sources.

FSC has developed a standard FSC-STD-40-005 Requirements for Sourcing FSC Controlled Wood which needs to be implemented by certified companies wanting to source controlled wood.

The FSC Controlled Wood Standard requires the certificate holders that use controlled wood to mitigate the risk of using wood products from undesirable sources in FSC-labeled products. Mitigation must be implemented when the risk of sourcing from non-certified forests is greater than 'low' (as assessed in FSC risk assessments).

In other words, under FSC’s controlled wood standard, organisations must commit to obtaining their raw materials from low-risk sources which excludes five unacceptable categories:

1) Illegally harvested forests
2) Forests that were harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights
3) Forests where High Conservation Values are threatened by management activities
4) Natural forests that were converted to non-forest uses
5) Forests with genetically modified trees.
 

FSC national risk assessment (NRA) is document where certified companies that wish to source controlled wood may find the assessment of the risk of sourcing material from unacceptable sources in a given country, developed according to FSC-PRO-60-002 V3-0 EN The Development and Approval of FSC National Risk Assessments.

This risk assessment shall be used when implementing The FSC Controlled Wood Standard.

Currently, NRAs in the Adria-Balkan Region have been developed for sourcing controlled wood from Slovenia and Croatia. You may find these two NRAs below.