Holzindustrie Schweighofer presents strengthened “Action Plan for Sustainable Timber Industry in Romania” for public consultation
- Protection of primeval forests is an explicit concern
- Further securing the timber supply chain in Romania – Holzindustrie Schweighofer contributes to the fight against illegal logging in Romania
- Public consultation: The company collects feedback on the reinforced action plan until 22 June 2018
Holzindustrie Schweighofer, one of Europe's leading wood processors, with three sawmills and two wood panel production plants in Romania, presents an update of its action plan for a sustainable timber industry which was introduced in January 2017. The company is now collecting feedback on the measures in a public consultation process until 22 June 2018. By strengthening the Action Plan, the company is responding to FSC's (Forest Stewardship Council) conditions to take further steps to address the risks associated to its supply chains, by strengthening its Due Diligence and Chain of Custody systems, among many other improvement measures Schweighofer is thus consistently pursuing the path it has taken so far to strengthen a sustainable timber industry in Romania.
Michael Proschek-Hauptmann, responsible for compliance and sustainability at Holzindustrie Schweighofer: "For us, sustainable forestry means continuously optimizing our security architecture to protect the forests. The input of NGOs, business partners and other stakeholders was and is very important to us. Our action plan and the related consultation process are unique in Romania and show that our company sees criticism as an incentive to improve."
The basic principles of this action plan, which goes far beyond Romania's legal requirements, are:
- To ensure as far as possible that only legally harvested wood is being processed. Among other things by means of GPS based traceability of deliveries with the company's own Timflow System (www.timflow.com).
- Zero tolerance for suppliers who cannot prove the legal origin of the wood
- Protection of primeval forests and no supplies from national parks, not even where Romanian legislation allows it.
- Sustainably implemented dialogue with environmental NGOs and other stakeholders with the commitment to continuously improve the security architecture
- Ongoing training of the Schweighofer Compliance Teams
- Implementation of substantial reforestations in cooperation with universities and private forest administrators: planting of around 1 million trees until 2024
The updated Action Plan is now available to all stakeholders and interested parties for one month. "Before we continue with the implementation, we would like to ask our stakeholders again and hope to receive appropriate feedback. Only after the end of this consultation phase will the strengthened Action Plan be finalised and implemented. Comments on the draft document can be sent to stakeholder.wien[at]schweighofer.at by 22 June 2018.
