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Riley Crawford is additionally revising 20 of its 60 country risk assessments,
looking at risks of illegality and unsustainable practice. Its new
Risk Assessment Framework will be unveiled in June, with the
20 revised national assessments available by January 2025.

The PEFC ran a webinar ‘On the path to EUDR alignment’
on 27 February delivering the latest on development of its
sustainable forest management and chain of custody standards
to help certified companies to satisfy the regulation.
A PEFC Sustainable Forest Management Working Group
has worked on ‘identifying and validating gaps between
its sustainable forest management standard and EUDR
requirements’ and revisions of the standards are out for
consultation through February/March, with the final versions

available in May.
PEFC is also developing an EUDR-adapted due diligence
system (DDS) to enable companies to implement the regulation,
which will be compatible with the existing PEFC DDS in its
chain of custody standard. The new system, says PEFC, will
actually go further than EUDR requirements by also covering
its controversial sources definition.

By implementing the PEFC EUDR Module alongside the
PEFC SFM and Chain of Custody Standards, PEFC says
operators will ensure they are undertaking due diligence in line
This obligation is imposed directly on companies that with the EUDR’s requirements, including on risk assessment
first place regulated products on the EU market, that export and definitions of controversial sources and deforestation.
these products from the EU market, and companies which The organisation is also focusing on the EUDR’s demand
are not SMEs trading inside the EU. for timber geolocation data. “Certified organisations and PEFC
The new FSC platform aims to enable businesses to members can expect guidance on how best to approach
transmit product origin and harvest date data throughout EUDR compliance data issues, including, where appropriate,

the supply chain. Confidentiality of sourcing information is suggested standardised methods for obtaining, storing, and
key, says the FSC, and only those who upload data to the presenting necessary data,” it states.
system will be able to say who can access it. A proposition is that PEFC-certified forest concession
EU Competent Authorities are also being kept informed owners/managers upload timber origin geolocation coordinates
on how it will operate and help generate due diligence to a PEFC database and be assigned a PEFC identification
statements for submission to the EU. number. PEFC-certified operators will then access the
Ahead of the EU benchmarking supplier countries under geolocation data using that number.

the EUDR as low, standard or high risk of commodity The data will be confidential to the operator. Those further
production causing deforestation and forest degradation, FSC down the supply chain will be given the number as proof