Stephen Mitchell Associates

I am available for customised Illegal Logging Due Diligence assistance or training workshops in Melbourne or Sydney. Email us to request an advice/training request form. The advice and training can cover any aspect of due diligence including: Establishing a documented due diligence system Information Gathering Risk Assessment Risk Mitigation Maintenance of records Responding to a Request for Information.

A Queensland based timber business has been the first importer issued with an infringement notice for $12,600. Details are scant, but we do know that the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources has now audited over 600 businesses and this penalty is the first since the "soft start-compliance period" ended in January 2018. More compliance audits are scheduled for 2019. We assisted several importers of paper products, furniture, sawn timber, plywood and veneer last year w

For wood products with multiple timber components – such as commonly the case with wood furniture - each component must be assessed for risk. For example, if an office table is made from MDF and wood veneer each wood component needs to be assessed for risk of containing illegally logged wood. The risk must be low for each component for the product to regarded as low risk. You can do a separate risk assessment or combine them in the one risk assessment – whatever is easier. Fo

FSC International continues to roll out the National Risk Assessments for their controlled wood system. The latest have been approved for UK, Uruguay and Russia with all wood harvested in UK rated as low risk of being illegally harvested. That brings to 26 countries where all the wood harvested in a country is effectively rated as low risk of being illegally harvested – including wood harvested in USA, Canada, France and Germany. Australian harvested wood (for which there is

Due diligence for illegally logged wood is it is not always about having the right document or certificate. Some documents can also be easily falsified or misrepresented. That is why we suggest that importers who visit the factories that make their products take photographs. Photographs can be useful evidence to demonstrate the type of timber or paper used in a product and its source. For example, an importer with a substantial public profile imports oak flooring manufactured

It pays to verify. It pays to verify! Doing some work recently for an Australian importer importing from a Chinese manufacturer we were sent a copy of a Chinese timber supplier's China Forest Certification Council (CFCC) COC certificate. China’s CFCC sustainable forest management standard is one of over 40 national standards endorsed by PEFC international so we checked the PEFC website and the timber supplier was not listed as being certified. Neither was the Chinese certifyi

China is one of the largest importers of US hardwoods and the current dispute is resulting in reduced imports from the US. Timber from the USA is low risk of being illegally logged so Australian importers of furniture and flooring using US hardwoods should be aware of any shift to higher risk sources of hardwoods (for example, Eastern Russia or Africa). Australian importers should include in any contracts a requirement for suppliers to inform you of any changes in types and s

If you are importing from Indonesia and using the Indonesian Country Specific Guideline for your risk assessment - a reminder that Indonesian VLK certificates can be verified on the Indonesian Government website. This website just received an upgrade which hopefully improves its availability. Some certifying bodies also list the companies they have certified to the SVLK timber legality assurance scheme (such as PT TUV Rheinland Indonesia here). If importing regularly we sugge

A written due diligence system is a requirement of the Regulation and it must include some essential elements about your business and the person responsible for due diligence. See the Department’s guidance on what must be included here. It must also include the written procedures you use to gather information, assess risk and mitigate risk (if needed). For importers with only a couple of decision makers importing one or two basic wood or paper items the procedures you underta