Logyards are an important part of Romania’s wood processing industry and are heavily regulated by Romanian forestry legislation. At the logyards, wood is sorted, cut into assortments and delivered to various customers, with numerous benefits for the environment, workforce, infrastructure and the overall economy. Operations along forest roads mostly make it impractical or impossible to sort, section wood and build up truck loads that reach customers directly from the forest. This is due either to spatial limitations on forest roads or to weather phenomena that make the road impassable for large trucks. In addition, logyard operations make construction material and firewood available to the local communities and enterprises.
At the logyards, the harvested wood is sorted by species, quality, type of usage (furniture, construction material, pulpwood) and diameter and cut into segments in line with customer requirements. Some of the wood is processed at logyards and the rest is sold to various customers for different uses, at different prices. This enables the operator to derive the highest added value from the incoming material. Under Romanian law, wood that enters the logyard has to show proof of origin from harvesting activity (be it by companies or individuals) and is only allowed to leave the logyard with the right papers, all recorded in a regulated registry and in the national wood tracking platform (SUMAL). Some PEFC™- or FSC®-certified logyards would also physically separate several wood categories to ensure an unbroken chain of custody (which also applies to our condition to ensure that wood from national parks is not mixed in with deliveries to our sawmills).
Our Due Diligence system for logyards
Holzindustrie Schweighofer’s Timflow platform safeguards wood traceability and also ensures that wood coming directly from the forest to our mills is legally destined for harvesting and does not originate from national parks. For Holzindustrie Schweighofer it is also important that no wood from national parks be mixed with wood that our company accepts for processing from logyards, which is why we have a well-designed due diligence system for logyards in place:
- Every supplier must disclose all sources of wood procurement, including the harvesting permit. This means that every supplier has to prove exactly from which forest its incoming loads originate. As soon as Holzindustrie Schweighofer’s Supply Chain Control & Certification officers learn that wood from national parks is traded from a logyard (which is perfectly legal for certain zones of national parks), the company rejects deliveries from this specific logyard unless physical separation is ensured and clearly identified.
- If physical separation is not ensured, the logyard operator is blocked and can only supply Holzindustrie Schweighofer during this blocking period if it has other harvesting locations outside of national parks and delivers directly from the primary platforms of said sites.
- All the deliveries of logs from a logyard to Holzindustrie Schweighofer’s sawmills are also tracked using Timflow. This ensures that the load is coming from a legally authorised logyard, subject to strict legal requirements.
The company’s suppliers are notified that Holzindustrie Schweighofer does not accept wood from national parks. This is clearly stipulated in our timber sourcing policy and in the relevant contracts. Suppliers are constantly checked to ensure compliance with this requirement.
