Speaking at the recent EUDR seminar at this year's Carrefour International du Bois (CIB), AHEC representatives highlighted the very different challenges facing the US hardwood sector to satisfy the EUDR.
Executive director Mike Snow said the EUDR was ‘going after the right things’ in terms of its prime aim to combat deforestation caused by conversion of forest land and in its coverage of the agricultural commodities most implicated in this.
He added, the risk of US hardwood deriving from such land was extremely low. “It’s estimated that disturbance of hardwood forest in terms of conversion to agriculture is running at about 0.005% of the total area a year,” he said. “In anyone’s book, that is negligible risk.”
Regardless, the US hardwood sector will have to provide proof to EU customers that each consignment of timber is legal and deforestation-free under the terms of the Regulation, and that’s the problem.