Timber Legality & Traceability Verification (TLTV)

Following the proliferation of wood procurement policies stating the preference to purchase products certified under specific SFM certification schemes, their implementation and impact has been challenged by the shortage of certified material available on international markets. These policies have often been revised to incorporate stepwise approaches or broadening of acceptable demonstrations of legal and sustainable timber, requiring timber products to be independently verified or certified so as to qualify as ‘legal’, ‘legal progressing to sustainable’ or ‘sustainable’. These procedures increasingly identify legality as a first requirement.

Timber Legality & Traceability Verification (TLTV) is an extension of SGS’s concept of verification of compliance with agreed requirements in the forest and timber products industry and trade sector. In comparison with Mandatory and Voluntary Legal Timber Validation , TLTV provides the “voluntary, company level” approach, which incorporates regular auditing, or continuous monitoring and verification of a company’s wood production and tracking information, outside any national scheme.

TLTV potentially involves a combination of the following activities:

1. verification of log/timber production and tracking data - involving review of timber tracking systems, from port back to stump in legitimate forest concession
   
   
2. auditing of company data and specific legality investigations and checks
   
   
3. data monitoring and processing, information analysis and reporting.

Implementation of these processes is necessary to reliably verify and analyse data so that a verification statement can be issued with confidence. Deployment of these activities depends on the nature of the company’s own supply chain and internal management systems.

Undertaking TLTV may not be enough for forest industry companies to comply with future trade regulations or to attract official recognition, but it should help a company demonstrate good governance, access restricted importing country markets and prepare for more demanding schemes, including Mandatory Legal Timber Validation or certification of sustainable forest management. It can also be used to demonstrate legal compliance to national authorities and to financiers in due diligence processes.