EU Timber Regulation (EUTR)

EUTR

• Comes into force on 3rd March 2013
• Prohibits illegally harvested timber or timber products from being placed on the EU market
• Is binding on all 27 EU Member States, which are responsible for laying down penalties and for enforcing the regulation

Main obligations of the EUTR

The regulation counters the trade in illegally harvested timber and timber products through three key obligations:

1) It prohibits the placing on the EU market of illegally harvested timber and products derived from such timber;
2) It requires EU traders who place timber products on the EU market for the first time to exercice “due diligence”. Once on the market, the timber and timber products may be sold on and/or transformed before they reach the final customer.
To allow for the traceability of timber products, economic operators in this part of the supply chain (referred to as traders in this regulation) have an obligation to
3) Keep records of their suppliers and customers

Source: European Union 2010; European commission - EUTR Leaflet

 

“What is due diligence”?

The core of the 'due diligence' notion is that operators undertake a risk management exercise so as to minimise the risk of placing illegally harvested timber, or timber products containing illegally harvested timber, on the EU market.

The three key elements of the "due diligence system" are:

Information:
The operator must have access to information describing the timber and timber products, country of harvest, species, quantity, details of the supplier and information on compliance with national legislation.
Risk assessment:
The operator should assess the risk of illegal timber in his supply chain, based on the information identified above and taking into account criteria set out in the regulation.
Risk mitigation:
When the assessment shows that there is a risk of illegal timber in the supply chain that risk can be mitigated by requiring additional information and verification from the supplier.

Source: European Union 2010; European commission - EUTR Leaflet

On the safe side - with products from Pollmeier!

What type of information indicates that Pollmeier Beech is of legal origin? There is proof in multiple ways.

1) Origin of wood: Pollmeier is sourcing currently raw material only from sustainably managed forests. The legislations are applied reliably with respect to the legality of forest wood harvesting measures.
The legality of wood harvesting measures is provided for by the legislation and is implemented at the administrative level. Alone the origin of the logs will easily fulfill the legal requirements.

2) Pollmeier is independently third-party PEFC™ and FSC® certified. The PEFC™ regulations prohibit the use wood from controversial sources (illegal or unauthorized harvesting) in certified products.
Amongst others one criterion for FSC® certified/Controlled Wood is the exclusion of illegally harvested wood. The national FSC® Controlled Wood Risk Assessment for Germany indicates that wood sources from Germany can be generally seen as low risk sources in relation to illegality.

3) According to Preferred by Nature (formerly known as NEPCon) Germany is confirmed to be free of significant risk of illegal harvesting activities.

4) There is usually a high rate of correlation between the level of corruption and the risk of illegal logging. According to Transparency International, there is a low perception of corruption in Germany.

5) Global Witness has published reports and articles on countries with illegal activities in the forest sector. As of June 2022, there is no bad press about Germany.

6) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources​ has developed a list of species that have been reported to carry a higher risk of association with illegal harvesting. European Beech is listed as Least Concern.

7) The raw material for the exported Pollmeier products was already placed on the EU market. Thus the importing of wood products manufactured 100% from Pollmeier products into the EU is therefore not seen as “first placing on the market”.
However, the operator (EU importer) has to verify that there was no mixing with materials from non EU origin throughout the complete Chain-of-Custody.

Exclusion of liability:
This information are assembled with best care. However no responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information. There is further a linking to external websites. As we have no influence on the contents of these websites, we cannot be held responsible for the contents of external websites. -