The Global Forest Registry is a map-based database, designed to help evaluate the risk of obtaining wood from controversial sources, as defined by the Forest Stewardship Council in the Controlled Wood standard. The definition of controversial sources includes: wood harvested illegally; wood harvested in violation of traditional or civil rights; wood harvested from areas being converted from forests and other wooded ecosystems to plantations or non-forest uses; and wood from forests in which genetically modified trees are planted. The database builds on publicly-available global sources of information for more than 150 countries. The database also includes more detailed information for countries that have completed FSC-approved controlled wood risk assessments.
Geographical Areas of Interest
Global
Supply Chain Focus
Forest production
Trade
Related CHapters
Legality
The Global Forest Registry incorporates Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index as a way to assess risk of illegality, as well as relevant national and sub-national data when available. The aspects covered by the Registry, based on the requirements of the FSC’s Controlled Wood Standard, include: prevalence of illegal harvesting; enforcement of logging related laws; existence of effective systems for legal harvest and wood purchases, as well as levels of corruption.
SFM
Sustainability aspects covered, based on the requirements of FSC’s Controlled Wood Standard, include: conversion of forest to plantations or non-forest uses; no net loss and no significant rate of loss (>0.5% per year) of natural forests to other naturally wooded ecosystems; no use of genetically modified trees. Among other national and sub-national relevant sources of information, the Registry incorporates information from the FAO’s State of the World’s Forests report to assess risk of forest conversion. Also, all countries are classified as low risk of sourcing commercial wood from GMOs, with the exception of China, where there are GMO plantations.
Unique Forest Values
FSC’s Controlled Wood Standard requires that companies must assess if there are high conservation values at the ecoregional level that are threatened by management. To this end, the Registry incorporates the following information: Biodiversity Hotspots; Global 200 Ecoregions; Frontier Forests and Intact Forest Landscapes, in addition to existing information for national and sub-national high conservation value forests assessments.