STERLING, Va. – The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) commissioned Dovetail Partners to complete independent jurisdictional risk assessments covering hardwood production in 33 states. 

The risk assessments are being performed in response to the European Union’s deforestation regulation. The EUDR went into force in June 2023 and provides companies trading wood products with EU member states an 18-month transition period to adopt the new requirements. By 2025, wood products and other specified commodities entering the EU market must be accompanied by a due diligence statement addressing deforestation risk and providing the geolocation of all plots of lands where the relevant commodities were produced.  

Minneapolis-based Dovetail Partners, a non-profit corporation specializing in environmental management, will complete the jurisdictional risk assessments in conformance to the new “Framework for Jurisdictional Risk Assessment of Legal Compliance of Hardwood Production in the USA” created by the Sustainable Hardwood Coalition (SHC). The project will assess the risk of illegality of hardwood production in each of 33 U.S. states and produce assessments that are endorsed by the SHC. The involved states are identified by US Forest Inventory Analysis data as producing substantial hardwood volumes.

AHEC initiated the SHC in 2022 to develop “a cost-effective system to verify the sustainability of hardwoods and to maximize market opportunities for sustainable hardwood products.” SHC certification is especially targeted for use by small-scale, non-industrial forest owners in the United States as an alternative to certifications offered by the Forest Stewardship Council, Sustainable Forestry Initiative that typically cater more to large commercial forests.

According to its latest Framework draft available online, “The Sustainable Hardwood Coalition aims to be a cost-effective system to verify and certify the sustainability of hardwoods and maximize market opportunities for sustainable hardwood products. SHC responds to the technical constraints to certification in situations where wood supply is from vast numbers of small private family forests, where owners often harvest once in a generation, generally practice very low intensity management, and are often not driven by commercial timber demand. In these non-industrial circumstances, there is typically extremely low participation in other certification systems. This Standard has therefore been developed with the purpose of being a component of an alternative complimentary certification system.”

The results of Dovetail Partners’ project will include providing public access to endorsed statewide risk assessments to ensure equitable nationwide access to SHC certification by the U.S. hardwood sector.  

“The first priority is to implement a set of procedures that will enable U.S. hardwood suppliers to address the EUDR requirements, including investigating and providing an independent determination of the risk of illegal harvesting in accordance with the EUDR definitions,” said Mike Snow, executive director, AHEC. The AHEC is an international trade association for the U.S. hardwood industry, representing U.S. hardwood exporters and the major U.S. hardwood product trade associations. AHEC runs a worldwide program to promote the full range of American hardwoods in over 50 export markets.

For more information, to receive project updates, or to join the stakeholder and project contact list, contact Dovetail Partners at [email protected] or 612-333-0430; visit dovetailinc.org.