News & Blogs

On March 8th, the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), using information provided by Greenpeace, filed a formal report on non-compliance with the public prosecutor about a Dutch timber importer who has breached the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR).

The 14th semi-annual membership meeting of the Forest Legality Alliance took place in December 2015. It was attended by 104 people from 78 different companies, NGOs, and government bodies and lively discussion was held on three main topics: timber legality in the Congo Basin, updates on the Lacey Act in the guitar industry, and the recent Lumber Liquidators Lacey Act case. Short summaries are below.

The Forest Legality Alliance will be participating in several events at this year's Asia-Pacific Forestry week, including leading Thematic Stream 1: Pathways to Prosperity: Future Trade and Markets in partnership with ITTO. In addition, FLA will be presenting "Opportunities and challenges for market access" (Session 2 in Stream 1) and "Updates on Timber Trade and Timber Legality" (Session 3.7 in Stream 1).

The United States’ largest hardwood flooring retailer was sentenced on February 1, 2016 after pleading guilty in October to importing illegally harvested timber from areas including forests in the Russian Far East. Lumber Liquidators will pay $7.8 million in criminal fines, $1.23 million in community service payments and will forfeit nearly $1 million in assets for importing illegally sourced hardwood flooring.

Mongabay, RESOLVE’s Biodiversity and Wildlife Solutions program, and the World Resources Institute (WRI) have joined forces to develop an online platform to spark and share innovative, technology-driven solutions to address the alarming decline of Earth’s biodiversity.

Informed procurement choices can support the sustainable management of forests, help protect workers’ health and the rights of the people who depend on forests. Growing numbers of private and public sector actors are setting ambitious targets to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains. The question remains: How to implement and deliver on these commitments?

This June, the Global Timber Forum (GTF) held its second session in Shanghai, China, bringing together over 100 representatives of the private sector as well as a number of governmental, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations that work with the forest products sector.

Calling all innovators! The Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge is a competition that will award Grand Prizes of up to $500,000 for the most impactful and scalable science and tech solutions to combat trafficking of terrestrial and marine wildlife.

On November 4, 26 members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Forest Solutions Group released a leadership statement, committing to significantly scale up sustainable forest management. These 26 members are responsible for nearly 40% of annual global forest, paper, and packaging sales. To read the full story on WBCSD's website, click here.