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.<\/p>\n
Executive director Mike Snow said the EUDR was \u2018going after the right things\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
He added, the risk of US hardwood deriving from such land was extremely low. \u201cIt\u2019s estimated that disturbance of hardwood forest in terms of conversion to agriculture is running at about 0.005% of the total area a year,\u201d he said. \u201cIn anyone\u2019s book, that is negligible risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n The key issue for the US hardwood sector, explained Mr Snow, was the fragmentation of forest ownership and the low intensity management operated in the country\u2019s more than nine million private holdings. With mills sourcing from a supply base of small forest plots, often family owned, they would need to provide multiple geolocation coordinates for each timber shipment. Moreover, as these plots may only be harvested once a generation, sourcing coordinates would be different from year to year. The task would be highly complex and labour intensive.<\/p>\n Mr Snow went so far as to say that, as things stand, the EUDR posed a potentially \u2018existential challenge\u2019 to the US hardwood sector\u2019s EU exports. Moreover, it had implications for its trade more widely.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the EU itself accounts directly for 10% of US exports, its significance to the US industry is increased by the fact that a significant proportion of our exports to other countries, including China, Turkey, India, and Vietnam, are made into finished products destined for the EU. So, they will have to meet the requirements of the EUDR too.\u201d<\/p>\n AHEC environmental policy director Rupert Oliver said that relying on third party certification of forest management as a risk mitigation tool under the EUDR (and he stressed that it alone would not, in any case, provide a \u2018green lane\u2019 through the regulation) was also not an option in the US as it had not been taken up widely.<\/p>\n This was again in large part due to fragmented, small-scale forest ownership.<\/p>\n Bespoke deforestation-free system for U.S. hardwoods<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Oliver said that, faced with these hurdles, AHEC has been developing a bespoke system to provide a robust assurance to international buyers that U.S. hardwoods are legally sourced and deforestation-free.<\/p>\n One of the pillars of the system, which is being created with U.S. government support, is legality risk assessment of the 33 principal hardwood forest states. This is set to be completed this year by a team of experts from non-profit sustainability and environmental management consultants and advisors Dovetail Partners.<\/p>\n Mr Oliver explained that the AHEC system will combine the legality risk assessment with regular \u2018high resolution\u2019 monitoring of deforestation risk at the level of individual properties using AI and drawing on satellite data and the uniquely detailed land ownership mapping available in the US.<\/p>\n \u201cSatellite forest monitoring is best done on an annual basis to show whether forest disturbance is part of regular forestry processes or long-term and potentially deforestation,\u201d said Mr Oliver. \u201cA pilot of the system undertaken in the first quarter of 2024 in Georgia picked up 11,000 points of forest disturbance, but the preliminary AI analysis suggested only a tiny proportion of these would likely be followed by conversion to agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n While the analysis will be carried out at sufficiently high resolution to identify land-use changes at field and property level, US hardwood exporters will provide geolocations at county level through this system.<\/p>\n Mr Oliver emphasised that this is an equitable approach since the average area of U.S. counties supplying hardwoods, at around 160,000 hectares, is less than that of large tropical forest concessions, which can count as a single plot under the EUDR. U.S. counties are sufficiently compact to ensure a homogenous level of deforestation risk. Provision of county geolocations also overcomes significant legal issues in the U.S. around anti-trust and confidentiality that would result from provision of property level geolocations.<\/p>\n AHEC plans to link the satellite assessment with new scientific techniques such as stable isotope ratio and trace element analysis that can identify the provenance of wood products using a simple lab test or even a handheld device to assess their chemical composition.<\/p>\n Under favorable circumstances, these technologies can demonstrate provenance up to within a 20,000-hectare area with a high degree of confidence. Sufficient to confirm the county of origin, but not the property. Even this level of resolution requires the prior availability of a comprehensive database of timber samples collected in line with strict protocols from across the supply region, a process now getting underway in the US hardwood sector, but likely to take up to three years.<\/p>\n Mr Oliver added that, while the system is being developed for the US hardwood sector specifically, it also had potential application in other countries with fragmented forest ownership, which included some in Europe and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n AHEC has presented its approach to representatives of EU agencies and national competent authorities. Whether it will be accepted as meeting the specific demands of the EUDR \u2018in the field\u2019 when the Regulation is implemented remains to be seen. But regardless, says AHEC, the system will enable the US hardwoods sector to make a comprehensive data-based deforestation-free and legality claim in markets worldwide.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 \u2018going after … Continue reading