EU Timber Regulation Support Study - final report
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The final report of the Support study for development of the non-legislative acts provided for in the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the market (often referred to as the EUTR Support Study) has been published in mid-July 2011. The study aimed to identify efficient ways to fulfill the requirements of the EU Timber Regulation and looked into options for recognition procedures of monitoring organisations and risk management systems, taking into account in particular relevant best practices. The due diligence system should contain the following three elements: (1) Measures and procedures providing access to information concerning the operator supply of timber or timber products placed on the market; (2) Risk assessment procedures enabling the operators to analyze and evaluate the risk of illegally harvested timber or timber products derived from such timber being placed on the market; and (3) Risk mitigation procedures, except where the risk identified is negligible, which consist of a set of measures and procedures that are adequate and proportionate to minimize effectively that risk and which may include requiring additional information or documents and/or requiring third party verification. A number of applied systems were reviewed and based on the gathered information from the stakeholders the project team identified tools, which could be applied by operators to deliver the information, as required by the EU Timber Regulation. The Article 8 of the EUTR deals with the role of Monitoring Organisations, third party organisations responsible in assisting and monitoring whether operators meet the requirements of the Regulation. The study team identified recognition requirements and procedures, which could assure the efficient and effective operation of the foreseen Monitoring Organisations.
The report is available from the DG Environment website. The study was coordinated by the European Forest Institute (EFI). Sub-contractors were Indufor (Finland) and University of Padova (Italy).
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