ON 4TH JUNE 2014 CAME INTO FORCE DECISION OF GOVERNMENT NO. 470 WHICH APPROACH THE RULES RELATED TO THE PROVENANCE, CIRCULATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF WOOD MATERIALS, AS WELL AS REGARDING SOME MEASURES FOR IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) NO. 995/2010 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT OF THE COUNCIL OF 20TH OCTOBER 2010 LAYING DOWN THE OBLIGATIONS OF OPERATORS WHO PLACE TIMBER AND TIMBER PRODUCTS ON THE MARKET WOOD.

The new regulation expressly abolish existing regulation, more precisely the Decision 996/2008, that wanting to reconcile the Civil Code with special legislation in forestry field, such the operators are called Professionals.

In order to sale the wood materials, the professional must hold the documents related to provenance of wood materials and the documents will attest sourcing lawful. These documents are the following:

  • Adjusted present value called APV – document of the provenance wood materials from standing timber inventoried or marked, certified and delivered to service, if transportation from place of harvest, identified on the delivery note by the unique number generated by SUMAL(the electronic system).
  • Register of input-output of woody materials.
  • The delivery note is the document of origin only when the basis of his opinion accompanying another issue; delivery note is document provenance if not meet the formal and substantive, and wood materials for which it is registered as a document of provenance not legal provenance.
  • Intra-communities documents, which are documents of origin for wood materials in the Member State of the European Union.
  • The customs import declaration and, where appropriate, the FLEGT license is the document from which the wood materials imported from third countries
  • Minutes of restraint / seizure / release to custody under the law.
Adjusted present value, called APV is a document containing technical-economic evaluation results quantitative, qualitative and value, as well as the location, according to the arrangement of technical forestry forests of wood for exploitation. APV is draw up by the Ranger District which carried out the adjustment of value.
The delivery note accompanying the documents of provenance only when its basis is issued another one, in the following situations:

  • Wood materials reloading from a means of transport to another one;
  • The acquisition of wood materials by purchasers (the moral person that buys wood materials legally owned by the owners of natural forest, under a purchase deed).

It regulates the use SUMAL as compulsory for all Ranger Districts and traders, called the professionals by current legislation, which harvest, processes, commercialization or carry out the import-export operation of wood materials: excepting the operators and traders who harvest, store and sells or carries out import-export with trees and ornamental shrubs, willow and saplings.

The operators who introduces on the market products on the market of wood, are required to implement and use for the wood materials category, a system “due diligence”.

That due diligence system includes:

A. Measures and procedures for access to the following information concerning the operator’s supply of wood or wood products, which are introduced on the market:

  • description, including business name and kind of product, as well as the common name of tree species and, where appropriate, the full scientific name;
  • country of harvest, as appropriate:
    – Sub-national region where the timber was harvested;
    – Concession of harvest;
  • Quantity (expressed in volume, weight or number of units);
  • The name and address of the supplier to the operator;
  • The name and address of the trader to whom they have been supplied the wood and wood products;
  • Documents or other information indicating that timber and timber products concerned are in conformity with applicable law;

B. Risk assessment procedures that allow of the operator to analyze and evaluate the risk of being placed on the market of illegally harvested timber or timber products derived from it.
These procedures take into account the information referred to in (a) and relevant risk assessment criteria, including:

  • The ensuring to compliance the applicable legislation, which may include certification or other verified schemes by third party which refers to the applicable law;
  • Prevalence of illegal harvesting of specific tree species;
  • Prevalence of illegal harvesting or illegal practices in the country of harvest and / or sub-national region where the timber was harvested, including the prevalence of armed conflicts;
  • Sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council or the Council of the EU on the import or export of wood;
  • The complexity of supply chain wood and wood products;

C. Unless the risk identified during the risk assessment procedures referred to in (b) is negligible, the risk mitigation procedures which consist of a series of measures and procedures that are adequate and proportionate measures to reduce the efficiency at minimum risk and which may include requiring additional information or documents and / or requiring of verification by third party.