{"id":29593,"date":"2025-10-27T15:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T05:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=29593"},"modified":"2025-10-27T16:28:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T06:28:50","slug":"report-will-fsc-act-on-the-multi-billion-dollar-timber-fraud-in-its-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/report-will-fsc-act-on-the-multi-billion-dollar-timber-fraud-in-its-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Will FSC Act on the Multi-Billion Dollar ‘Fraud’ in its Scheme?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Forest Stewardship Council – forestry’s gold standard – will next week vote on whether to begin work on new traceability rules after a new report alleged that it lacks the systems needed to proactively detect fraud across its supply chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported by the conservation publication Mongabay<\/a>, the Bonn-based body is facing increased scrutiny after an Earthsight report published last week<\/a> estimated that billions of dollars’ worth of pulp, paper, and timber-based products bearing FSC certification were tied up in fraudulent claims. FSC rejected some of the report\u2019s estimates as unsubstantiated<\/a>, but the issue has prompted calls for a system that can track volumes of certified wood from forest to market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click here to download the report<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

At present, companies in the FSC supply chain can buy and sell FSC-certified timber without reporting volumes to the FSC itself, leaving no centralised way to reconcile certified material entering the system with what reaches the market. Third-party auditors review individual traders\u2019 invoices, the FSC said, but forestry experts note there is no routine, system-wide transaction analysis to detect volume discrepancies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a trust-based system,\u201d said Sam Lawson, head of U.K. investigative NGO Earthsight. \u201cWhat companies are doing rampantly is selling far more FSC products than they buy FSC timber. So they\u2019re basically slapping an FSC label on wood that\u2019s coming from somewhere else entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Phil Guillery, FSC\u2019s former integrity director, \u201c20-30% of claims in the system were false\u201d during his tenure, \u201cand I haven\u2019t seen anything to suggest the figure has dropped since.\u201d The FSC issued a swift rebuttal, calling Guillery\u2019s claims unsubstantiated and \u201cbased on outdated information that does not reflect the system today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click here to download FSC International’s response<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A current senior FSC official who spoke to Mongabay on condition of anonymity said Guillery\u2019s estimate was likely conservative. \u201cI\u2019m actually amazed he said 20-30 per cent \u2014 probably the numbers are higher,\u201d the official said, and alleged that fraud remained widespread while \u201clittle of significance was being done to address it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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