WOOD TRACKING PROGRAM - Global Forestry Services Inc

Global Forestry Services Inc (GFS) provides assessment and monitoring of manufacturers and traders under the Wood Tracking Program (WTP) based on a formal Chain of Custody (COC) system that can include Batch Inspections to trace material and products based on their environmental status to the forest of origin.

The GFS wood tracking program follows the GFTN responsible purchasing guidelines in recognizing environmental status as : Credibly certified; In Progress / Controlled Wood & Legal.

Provide formal structured chain of custody system to track raw material from forest origin through processing & trade based on environmental status.

Ensure that wood products are derived from raw material that is legally harvested from forest or plantation areas (VLO).

Identify wood products and material originating from forest areas working towards certification or considered as low risk to meet FSC controlled wood.

Support companies to eliminate all unclassified material from their supply chain based on a scheduled Action Plan for Responsible Purchasing.

Provide system to quantify & verify carbon storage in wood products based on product type defined by Life Cycle Assessment

“The GFS Wood Tracking Program provides assurance that the material
in your wood products is traceable to verified legal sources
in compliance to FLEGT requirements.”

The GFS Wood Tracking Program is a multifaceted system that includes a formal chain of custody system that can be integrated with Legal Verification Services, & Supply Chain Management to support the concept of responsible purchasing. Companies participating in the GFS WTP will need to develop a scheduled Action Plan to improve their supply chain management by eliminating all Unknown material within a 5-year period and increase the purchases of material and products from In Progress & Credibly Certified Sources.

Companies participating in the GFS WTP are encouraged to join the WWF Global Forest & Trade Network to gain access to environmentally sensitive markets in Europe, Japan & North America.

The chain of custody standard used by GFS WTP has been derived from the FSC standard that requires companies to have formal procedures track raw material purchased through production and sales within a given company along a clearly defined supply chain. The GFS WTP requirements for Chain of Custody are listed in WTP - 005 that forms the standard used to evaluate a company’s ability to purchase & trace raw material through production & sales of finished goods based on environmental status.

Responsible Purchasing :

Companies that want to participate in the GFS WTP shall develop an Action Plan that defines targets to ensure all unknown material is eliminated from the supply chain within 5 years. The company must define an annual schedule of targets to increase purchases of raw material from Known / Verified Legal Origin or Compliance, In Progress / Controlled Wood and fully certified. GFS offers Legal Verification Services as part of the GFS WTP to support evaluation of clients supply chains for legal origin / legal compliance to meet the company’s targets for responsible purchasing.

Companies that want to participate in the GFS Wood Tracking Program shall be able to demonstrate compliance to the requirements (WTP 005) to be eligible for a Statement of Participation . GFS staff or contractors shall evaluate and report the company’s compliance to the standard. Summaries of all monitoring reports will be posted on the GFS WTP client database for transparency in compliance to the requirement to the market.

Companies must address any and all major non-compliance prior to being granted a GFS WTP Statement of Participation. Companies under a GFS Wood Tracking Program will be monitored 2 times annually (or as deemed necessary) to verify continual compliance to the COC system and progress to the scheduled Action Plan for Responsible Purchasing. Companies that receive a Major GAP during surveillance to either the COC requirements or progress to the Action Plan must address it within 1 month or be liable for suspension of trading activities under the GFS WTP.

The GFS Wood Tracking Program offers clients a means to identify to their buyers that the company has a formal Chain of Custody system through the GFS Statement of Participation and formal system for product Identification of all material traded under the GFS WTP.

Each shipment traded under the GFS Wood Tracking Statement of Participation will be identified using a GFS approved Standard Product Identification Format that summarizes and traces the contents through the supply chain. All manufacturing and trading companies that desire to trade timber & wooden products under a GFS Wood Tracking Program must continually demonstrate compliance to the Requirements for COC (WT 005) and the Conditions of Participation (WT 029). The GFS Wood Tracking Statement of Participation for manufacturing and trading companies will be valid for 5 years.

GFS provides a standard for Verification of Legal Origin (VLO) within the Wood Tracking Program to support the Responsible Purchasing commitments as defined in the 5-year Action Plan. GFS requirements for Legality are defined in (LVS-005). GFS will evaluate the traceability of forest products from forest management organisations that can demonstrate traceability of material to (whether of short or long term duration) to the forest area with legal harvesting licenses. GFS will issue an Audit Statement to the client as part of the Wood Tracking Program in respect to verification of origin to a legal harvesting area with clear boundaries and harvesting allocation or plan that can be used in demonstrating traceability for manufacturing and trading. The evaluation will be based on Batch Inspection of a specific volume of material or systems that can then be incorporated into the Chain of Custody under the GFS Wood Tracking Program.

Monitoring of continued compliance to the requirements of the Legal Verification Service will be scheduled as part of the regular 6-month surveillance for the supply chain of each client under the GFS Wood Tracking Program.

GFS will provide evaluation of the company’s current supply chain system for specific product ranges. Evaluation will include site visits to trading companies, factories and the raw material suppliers to verify the origin of material to the forest areas that are actually used in the products. GFS will provide confidential reports on the current level of traceability of material and classify the system into the various environmental levels (Certified; In Progress; VLO).

GFS will assist the company in strategies for scheduling current suppliers within the defined product range to develop COC systems and to acquire raw material from acceptable suppliers

GFS will provide for calculation of carbon loss through manufacturing process to finished goods that can be verified under each work order unit of production. The Wood Tracking Program can then be used to evaluate the finished product type to classify average length of carbon storage based on product use and Life Cycle Assessment.

Durable goods such as wood for flooring, indoor furniture, paneling can have a life span of 50-100 years while medium durable products such as outdoor furniture can have a life span of 25-50 years; less durable products such as wooden bathroom accessories can be expected to last 10-25 years and non durable wooden products such as wooden kitchen utensils less than 5 years.

This database has been designed to provide information on all wood processing and trading companies who are participating in the Wood Tracking Program.

Manufacturing and trading companies that wish to participate in the GFS Wood Tracking Program can fill out and return the Application form (WTP 003) to GFS. Please refer to the guidelines on Requirements for developing a Chain of Custody system. Relevant documents for the GFS Wood Tracking Program listed here can be downloaded for your convenience.