It is very easy for the timber value-chain to focus on large forested areas with limited number of owners to supply material. Throughout Europe and the UK there are huge numbers of small woodland owners who often struggle to find markets for timber or prove sustainability and responsible management.

“I think that our model can be replicable in other territories. We have worked very hard to get the most out of these rules and to get the most out of the result that you are looking for, which is sustainable forest management, to maintain over time forest management that will see resources, that biodiversity is protected, that CO2 is fixed starting from a territory as complex as the one that we have in Galicia, eh?"

Carlos Iglesias Dapena, Finsa

It’s been inspiring to see the extent of forest ownership and how a relatively big processor such as Finsa has invested in making this supply-chain work. Using digital technologies is enabling Finsa to show a level of responsibility to the community it sits within and in turn for the forest owners to show a level of responsibility to the environment.

In conversations of data, transparency, and sustainable timber supply we question where responsibilities begin and end. Who needs to know what? What could the impact of more time in the forest have on designers, architects and engineers? We are increasingly asked about ethics and responsibility in timber sourcing by design practices and developers so we set out to explore what is happening to help the value-chain ensure that the decisions being made positively impact on the forest.

RESPONSIBILITY

Questioning the boundaries of supply chain duties

Weisrock glulam manufacturer, Vosges

Engaging with certification experts, innovators in supply-chain transparency, and those bridging the gap between timber users and forests, we aim to explore the future of responsible timber sourcing and its implications for stakeholders across the entire value-chain.

FUTURE OF TIMBER

PODCAST SERIES

We talked with Tom Ludvig from NatureMetrics and Adam Grant, at Double Helix to consider what it means to ensure the integrity of our timber supply-chains. At NatureMetrics Tom has been working to prepare the corporate world for nature-based reporting through the use of robust high-resolution data to track biodiversity impacts. At Double Helix, Adam works in supply-chain due diligence for forest products and agri-commodities.

Future of Timber - Responsibility with Adam Grant (Double Helix) & Tom Ludwig (NatureMetri

00:00 / 41:00

+ Listen on Spotify

In the world of EUDR and increasing focus on certification, whole-value-chain developments like NatureMetrics and Double Helix will be critical for proving responsible timber sourcing from well managed forests. Accompanying this high-level innovative work, on the ground, is another layer of ensuring responsibility on a more intimate and human level.

We met Jean-Jacques Bouteau and his apprentice in the forest in d’Auberive. In this beautiful part of the world south of the Haute-Marne France, Jean-Jacques leads a team of technicians responsible for managing 16,500 hectares of public forest. Part of the national forest this particular area is managed using mixed forestry (continuous cover mixed silviculture, CCMS)

This way of managing the forest has come about in response to reactions of local residents to the clearfells of the 1990’s. What’s happening in d’Auberive is a demonstration of a community engaging with the surrounding landscape and taking responsibility for its health and vitality via state-owner Office National de Forêts (ONF).

In 2017 members of the association felt it was important to explain what CCMS is and to teach technical elements of this complex system to forest owners, students, elected officials, and the wider general public. In turn, this community led knowledge transfer became the Forêt irrégulière école d’Auberive (The Irregular Forest School, FIE).

“What's striking today is that things are changing very fast, and foresters aren't used to things changing fast... that means we have to constantly readjust our actions. We have to be able to adapt to different timeframes. We have to adapt to relatively short deadlines, and this culture allows us to do just that.”

Jean-Jacques Bouteau, ONF

We met Manuel Garcia for coffee in a small Galician town. On a paper napkin he outlines how the certification for sustainable timber works in one of the most densely forested areas of Spain. For Manuel, who runs a large group certification scheme in an area that has traditionally focussed on commercial monoculture forestry, to say this has been a challenge is an understatement.

“It's been difficult to make the society understand that it's necessary to enter into the forest certification process, because it's going to perpetuate the resource, it's going to conserve the natural values and the economic values of the forests.”

For large forest owners it is relatively easy and cost effective to show responsibility through the certification schemes, but the cost to an owner with just 2-4 hectares is impossible without grouping them into cost effective group schemes.

“It’s been difficult to generate a structure capable of being economically viable within a Galician context of micro plots where individual certification is not possible. There is no resource for individual certification, so it has to be in a grouped way”

Galicia has a long history of forestry and with almost every household being a forest owner there is a deep cultural connection to the forest. The task is to bridge the gap between the societal connection and the need to demonstrate responsibility through the administratively heavy process of certification. Recently, digital technologies are helping to make the management of certification and knowledge sharing significantly easier.

“We are talking about 40,000 owners within the certification group. That's a very large volume of people, of management models, of documentation… there are several hundred communities and we need to apply other control methodologies… What we do is we work it in a digital world where the forester or owner reports to the digital world and everybody knows what's going on at all times.”

Finsa, regionally the largest producer of sawn timber products, has become integral to the process of certification in the region of Galicia. They have a responsibility to ensure the long-term supply of timber and that means working with landowners in long-term agreements. Manuel provides the link to ensuring that the responsibility of Finsa to guarantee sustainable supply is matched by the responsibility of owners to nurture their forest resource.

What is the future of timber ?

A project by Evolving Forests
Funded by Built By Nature
Supported by Forestry Commission, Scottish Forestry Trust, Egger

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If you're inspired, challenged by, or curious about any of the themes or discussions the project touches on, we urge you to get in touch. This remains an ongoing conversation, not a static piece of work