Holzindustrie Schweighofer: Romanian action plan for a sustainable timber industry shows effects: Two suppliers were suspended in August 2017
Holzindustrie Schweighofer has implemented a plan of action to combat illegal logging, which goes far beyond the legal level in Romania.
One of the components of this action plan is our policy whereby we – even where legally permitted – do not accept wood from national parks. We thus support the concern of environmental groups to better anchor the protection of national parks in Romania.
Our security mechanisms for our “zero wood from national parks” policy are:
- The contractual obligation of our suppliers not to deliver wood from national parks to us.
- Checking the origin of the wood through the SUMAL system (the database system of the Romanian Government for the traceability of timber transports), Inspectorul Padurii (Romanian Government system for transparent presentation and traceability of timber harvesting and data collected by SUMAL), and checking direct deliveries with our own GPS tracking system Timflow.
Two suppliers suspended in August 2017
In August 2017, Holzindustrie Schweighofer discovered three truckloads that originated from the buffer zone of the Romanian national park Muntii Rodna. The company’s own wood tracking system Timflow (www.timflow.com) alerted it to the wood’s origin. The loads were delivered by two suppliers to Holzindustrie Schweighofer’s wood collection site Susenii Bargaului on 4, 14 and 17 August 2017. These loads were legally harvested according to Romanian law, but represented a clear breach of the internal company policies. (Note: Harvesting in buffer zones of national parks is by the way not a Romanian specialty, as there are also many national parks in Germany or Austria where there are legal timber harvesting measures in the buffer zones). Holzindustrie Schweighofer reacted immediately by suspending the two suppliers.
The company will also provide information on this incident at its regular stakeholder and NGO meetings.
