Wood Central: New EUDR Rules Slash Compliance Checks for Low-Risk Timber

Critics argue that timber harvested in high-risk regions could be processed in low-risk hubs such as China, Singapore, or India, and then re-exported to Europe under misleading classifications. “Presumably, declarations would still need to indicate the original country of harvest,” said Kerstin Canby of Forest Trends, who spoke to Wood Central in June. “But if the country of harvest is categorised as standard risk and the re-exporting country is listed as low risk, how would that be treated? We already know from years of experience that much of the labelling and origin information tends to disappear during processing and re-export, which raises significant concerns.”