AHEC and Dovetail's New Approach to Ensure EU Compliance in U.S. Hardwood Exports
Look here at the latest news on E.U. Hardwood Compliance...
Announced in 2023, to assure that hardwood exports harvested from U.S. forests comply with European Union regulations, the American Hardwood Export Council is working with Dovetail Partners (a Minnesota-based non-profit) to implement a new form of verification to demonstrate that U.S. hardwood is legal and deforestation-free under E.U. definitions.
The project will lead to statewide risk assessments for 33 U.S. states that have been identified as significant producers of hardwoods to ensure “equitable nationwide access to Sustainable Hardwood Coalition (SHC) certification, according to the AHEC announcement. The AHEC-Dovetail project intends to implement a new form of verification to demonstrate that U.S. hardwood is legal in accordance with the new European Union definitions.
The EU announcement of the new regulations said, “On 29 June 2023, the Regulation on deforestation-free products entered into force. The main driver of these processes is the expansion of agricultural land linked to the production of commodities” including wood and furniture. “As a major economy and consumer of these commodities linked to deforestation and forest degradation, the EU is partly responsible …. and it wants to lead the way to solving it. Under the Regulation, any operator or trader who places these commodities on the EU market, or exports from it, must be able to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation.”
Here is more information regarding the project:
